a. Galileo’s audience for the letter is a fellow scholar and astronomer Mark Welser. His goal in writing the letter is to prove that he is certain that the sun isn’t perfect. He wants to show that there are sunspots on the sun, and how they got there. This goes against what was being said at the time, that the cosmos was perfectly made by the Creator.
2. What theories does Galileo offer here? Based on what evidence?
a. One theory that Galileo makes is that the sunspots are similar to clouds like smoke. “The black spot thus impressed on the iron, there will arise a black smoke that will disperse in strange and changing shapes. Thus we see wood, straw, paper, candlewicks,