Galileo Accomplishments

Whenever history is reviewed on Astronomy, great Scientists such as Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei must be mentioned for their great contribution in the world of Astronomy. Comparing Copernicus with Galileo, we see that Copernicus made great discoveries which Galileo would later use in making his scientific discoveries and proofs. Copernicus is regarded to as the father of Astronomy because of his great contribution towards making the universe understandable to many people. This essay focuses on major accomplishments of Nicholas Copernicus and how Galilei Galileo used them later to become successful scientist explorer.
Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and Mathematician who discovered that the sun was the center of the universe. He differed with the then common belief that it was the earth that was the center of the universe and that the sun and other bodies revolved around it. Little is said about Copernicus' view on multiple galaxies and the solar systems which are part of the universe. This is because he had no concept at all because the solar system and galaxies were small to be seen from the earth's surface using naked eyes (Armitage, 1951). This idea ruffled many scientists who could not agree with Copernicus and so at some point, his
idea was rejected. Copernicus did not retreat about his idea, instead, he persisted on the validity of the idea and this led another astronomy acumen to do further studies concerning the universe.
Galileo invented a telescope which he used to study the sun and the solar system at large.
He was motivated by Copernicus's idea of the sun being the center of the universe which many astronomy acumens didn't agree with. Through his telescope, Galileo observed that planets existed on their own right. He was also able to observe the moon which he said was formed by Moon Mountains and craters. Although Galileo did not come into full agreement with Copernicus's initial idea of the sun being at the center of the universe, at least he agreed that there are some bodies in the universe which revolve around the sun (Dreyer, 1906). This means that Copernicus' idea was not far from the truth as confirmed by Galilei
Galileo.
Another important idea by Copernicus that faced the highest criticism by the then thinkers of the day was that of objects moving by the virtue of our motion. Copernicus argued that all objects in the universe keep on changing or are in motion because of our movement on earth. To justify his argument, Copernicus used the position of the starts and the Sun on the sky (Koyre, 1973). However, this idea did ignore the movement of the moon and rotation of other eight planets. This idea did not hold any water according to many astronomy acumens.
Copernicus discovered what is called the celestial sphere which he considered to be the distance of the earth from the sun. He compared the said distance as the distance of the very last object from the solar system. In total, Nicolaus Copernicus added that apart from the sun being the center of the universe, it is also the center of gravity.
In conclusion, Nicholas Copernicus made very great contributions as far as astronomy and astrophysics are concerned. It is through him that we see the evolution of astronomy acumens. His discoveries especially the one stating that the sun was the center of the universe triggered Galilei Galileo to invent a telescope which he used to prove Copernicus hypothesis. This makes it clear that Nicholas Copernicus was more important to the future of physics than Galileo because Galileo relied on Copernicus ideas.