Great Russian inventions that turned the world upside down. The man who changed the world of science. Galileo Galilei. Brief biography and his discoveries Scientists who turned the world upside down

One of the most famous astronomers, physicists and philosophers in the history of mankind is Galileo Galilei. short biography and his discoveries, which you will now learn about, will allow you to get a general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis outstanding person.

First steps in the world of science

Galileo was born in Pisa (Italy), February 15, 1564. At the age of eighteen, the young man enters the University of Pisa to study medicine. His father pushed him to take this step, but due to lack of money, Galileo was soon forced to leave his studies. However, the time that the future scientist spent at the university was not in vain, because it was here that he began to take a keen interest in mathematics and physics. No longer a student, the gifted Galileo Galilei did not abandon his hobbies. A short biography and his discoveries made during this period played an important role in future fate scientist. He spends some time independent research mechanics, and then, in returns to the University of Pisa, this time as a teacher of mathematics. After some time, he was invited to continue teaching at the University of Padua, where he explained to students the basics of mechanics, geometry and astronomy. Just at this time, Galileo began to make discoveries significant for science.

In 1593, the first scientist was published - a book with a laconic title "Mechanics", in which Galileo described his observations.

Astronomical research

After the publication of the book, "is born" new Galileo Galileo. A brief biography and his discoveries is a topic that cannot be discussed without mentioning the events of 1609. After all, it was then that Galileo independently built his first telescope with a concave eyepiece and a convex objective. The device gave an increase of about three times. However, Galileo did not stop there. Continuing to improve his telescope, he increased the magnification to 32 times. Observing in it the Earth's satellite - the Moon, Galileo discovered that its surface, like the earth's, is not flat, but is covered with various mountains and numerous craters. Four stars were also discovered through the glass and changed their usual sizes, and for the first time the idea of ​​their global remoteness arose. turned out to be a huge accumulation of millions of new celestial bodies. In addition, the scientist began to observe the movement of the Sun and make notes about sunspots.

Conflict with the Church

The biography of Galileo Galilei is another round in the confrontation between the science of that time and church teaching. The scientist, based on his observations, soon comes to the conclusion that the heliocentric, first proposed and justified by Copernicus, is the only true one. This contradicted the literal understanding of Psalms 93 and 104, and in addition, the verse from Ecclesiastes 1:5, in which one can find reference to the immobility of the Earth. Galileo was summoned to Rome, where they demanded to stop propagating "heretical" views, and the scientist was forced to comply.

However, Galileo Galilei, whose discoveries had already been appreciated by some representatives of the scientific community, did not stop there. In 1632, he makes a cunning move - he publishes a book called "Dialogue on the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican." This work was written in an unusual form of dialogue at that time, the participants of which were two supporters of the theory of Copernicus, as well as one follower of the teachings of Ptolemy and Aristotle. Pope Urban VIII, good friend Galileo, even gave permission for the publication of the book. But this did not last long - just a couple of months later, labor was recognized as contrary to the dogmas of the church and banned. The author was summoned to Rome for trial.

The investigation lasted quite a long time: from April 21 to June 21, 1633. On June 22, Galileo was forced to pronounce the text offered to him, according to which he renounced his "false" beliefs.

The last years in the life of a scientist

I had to work in the most difficult conditions. Galileo was sent to his villa Archertri, in Florence. Here he was under the constant supervision of the Inquisition and did not have the right to get out into the city (Rome). In 1634, the beloved daughter of the scientist, who had taken care of him for a long time, died.

Death came to Galileo on January 8, 1642. He was buried on the territory of his villa, without any honors and even without a tombstone. However, in 1737, after almost a hundred years, the last will of the scientist was fulfilled - his ashes were transferred to the monastic chapel of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Croce. On the seventeenth of March, he was finally buried there, not far from the grave of Michelangelo.

Posthumous rehabilitation

Was Galileo Galilei right in his beliefs? A brief biography and his discoveries have long been the subject of controversy between clergy and luminaries of the scientific world, and many conflicts and disputes have developed on this basis. However, only on December 31, 1992 (!) John Paul II officially admitted that the Inquisition in the 33rd year of the 17th century made a mistake, forcing the scientist to renounce the heliocentric theory of the universe formulated by Nicolaus Copernicus.

For many centuries, the teachings of Ptolemy dominated the science of the universe. It was accepted and supported by the church and seemed to be true and irrefutable. But time passed, cities grew, crafts and trade developed, Europeans learned new countries and peoples. Discoveries of sailors of Portugal and Spain in the XIV-XVI centuries. changed geographical map. People realized how vast the world they live in, and trip around the world F. Magellan finally proved the sphericity of our planet.

The great Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) became the man who managed to create a new model of the Universe. Observations of the stars and planets, the study of the works of ancient thinkers and his contemporaries, complex mathematical calculations allowed him to conclude that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The center of the world, according to Copernicus, is the Sun, around which all the planets move, simultaneously rotating around their axes. The stars, according to Copernicus, are motionless and are located at great distances from the Earth and the Sun. Their rotation around the Earth is apparent, and it is due to the fact that our planet itself rotates around its axis, making one revolution in 24 hours. The stars form a sphere that bounds the universe.

World system according to Copernicus

The doctrine of Copernicus immediately found supporters among scientists of the 16th century. They spread the ideas of the great astronomer in their countries, expanded and deepened them. Thus, the Italian scientist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) believed that the Universe is infinite, it does not and cannot have a single center. The sun is the center solar system. But it itself is one of the many stars around which the planets revolve. Perhaps, J. Bruno believed, they also have life. Yes, and the solar system has not yet been fully studied, it is possible that there are still undiscovered planets in it. As it became clear later, many of these guesses by J. Bruno were correct.

Telescope G. Galileo

Herschel's first large telescope with a mirror 1.2 m in diameter (1789)

Much did for the development of the teachings of Copernicus and another Italian scientist - Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). In his observations of celestial bodies, he for the first time used a telescope that he made on his own (now it is difficult to say who was the inventor of this device). The best telescope of Galileo gave a magnification of only 30 times. But even this was enough to see the irregularities on the surface of the moon and dark spots on the sun. Sunspots did not remain motionless, they moved along its surface, but always in one direction. The conclusion was that the Sun rotates around its own axis. Most of all, Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter struck his contemporaries. This proved that not only celestial bodies can circulate around the Earth. Acquainting his contemporaries with his discoveries, Galileo pointed out the correctness of the teachings of N. Copernicus. This teaching slowly, in a fierce struggle against old prejudices, won more and more adherents.

Ancient image of the world system according to Copernicus

A lot of time has passed since then. More than one generation of scientists worked to create a modern model of the Universe. New devices and instruments, new research methods, manned space flights were required.

Modern science assumes such a model of the universe. Our Earth is part of the solar system, which is part of the Galaxy (a giant cluster of stars). Our and other galaxies, in turn, form clusters of galaxies, and they form superclusters. The world of the Universe is very diverse and contains countless celestial bodies and their systems.

Scientists who changed the world

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in the Polish city of Torun. He lost his parents early and was raised by his uncle. Copernicus was educated in Krakow and then in Italy. He studied not only astronomy, but also law, medicine, and philosophy. He was a well-educated man. Copernicus' ideas about the structure of the universe are set forth in his book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, which was published in 1543, shortly before the scientist's death. N. Copernicus spent 30 years of hard work on the creation of his teaching.

Nicholas Copernicus

Giordano Bruno was born in southern Italy. Having devoted his life to the dissemination and development of the teachings of N. Copernicus, he was forced to leave his homeland, wandering around many European countries. He was persecuted by the church, since the teachings of N. Copernicus were forbidden by it. At that time, the church severely punished those whose views were contrary to its institutions. J. Bruno was captured and, after several painful years in prison, burned in Rome on February 17, 1600. He died, but did not renounce his beliefs.

Giordano Bruno

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy. He received a versatile education (studied medicine, mathematics). Galileo did a lot scientific discoveries and was widely known. In 1632, he published the book Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World, in which he defended the teachings of N. Copernicus and refuted the Ptolemaic system. For this book, he was brought to trial by the church, at which he, then an old man, was forced to renounce his beliefs.

Galileo Galilei

Drawings of the Moon by Galileo

Galileo's telescope

Measuring instruments of medieval astronomers

Test your knowledge

1. How did the system of the world created by Copernicus differ from the system of the world according to Ptolemy?
2. What are the merits of J. Bruno in the development of views about the Universe?
3. What contribution did Galileo make to the study of the structure of the universe?
4. What model of the Universe does modern science offer?

Think!

Compare the system of the world according to Copernicus and the modern model of the Universe, find similarities and differences.

The great Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus created a model of the Universe, according to which the Sun is the center of the world, and the Earth and other planets revolve around it. The views of N. Copernicus were spread and developed by J. Bruno and G. Galilei. According to modern concepts, the Earth is part of the solar system, which is part of a giant cluster of stars - the Galaxy. The universe is made up of a huge number of galaxies.

Russia is rich in great scientists and inventors who have made a significant contribution not only to Russian progress, but also to the world. I suggest you get acquainted with the ingenious fruits of engineering thought of our compatriots, which you can rightly be proud of!

1. Electroplating

We so often come across products that look like metal, but are actually made of plastic and only covered with a layer of metal, that we no longer notice them. There are also metal products coated with a layer of another metal - for example, nickel. And there are metal products that are actually a copy of a non-metal base. We owe all these miracles to the genius of physics Boris Jacobi - by the way, the elder brother of the great German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacobi.
Jacobi's passion for physics resulted in the creation of the world's first electric motor with a direct rotation of the shaft, but one of his most important discoveries was electroforming - the process of deposition of metal on a mold, which allows you to create perfect copies of the original object. In this way, for example, sculptures on the naves of St. Isaac's Cathedral were created. Electroplating can be used even at home.
The electroforming method and its derivatives have found numerous applications. With its help, they did and still don’t do anything, up to the cliches of state banks. Jacobi received the Demidov Prize in Russia for this discovery, and a large gold medal in Paris. Possibly made in the same way.

2. Electric car

In the last third of the 19th century, a uniform electrical fever swept the world. Therefore, electric cars were made by all and sundry. This was the "golden age" of electric cars. Cities were smaller, and 60 km on a single charge was quite acceptable. One of the enthusiasts was the engineer Ippolit Romanov, who by 1899 had created several models of electric cabs.
But the main thing is not even that. Romanov invented and created in metal an electric omnibus for 17 passengers, developed a scheme of urban routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received a work permit. True, at your own personal commercial fear and risk.
The inventor could not find the required amount, to the great delight of competitors - horse-drawn horse owners and numerous cabbies. However, a working electric omnibus aroused great interest among other inventors and remained in the history of technology as an invention killed by the municipal bureaucracy.

3. Pipeline transport

It is difficult to say what is considered the first real pipeline. One can recall the proposal of Dmitry Mendeleev, dated as early as 1863, when he proposed to deliver oil from the extraction sites to the seaport at the Baku oil fields not in barrels, but through pipes. Mendeleev's proposal was not accepted, and two years later the first pipeline was built by the Americans in Pennsylvania. As always, when something is done abroad, it starts to be done in Russia as well. Or at least make money.
In 1877, Alexander Bari and his assistant Vladimir Shukhov again came up with the idea of ​​pipeline transport, already relying on the American experience, and again on the authority of Mendeleev. As a result, in 1878 Shukhov built the first oil pipeline in Russia, proving the convenience and practicality of pipeline transport. The example of Baku, which was then one of the two leaders in world oil production, became contagious, and “getting on the pipe” became the dream of any enterprising person. In the photo: view of a three-furnace cube. Baku, 1887.

4. Electric arc welding

Nikolai Benardos comes from Novorossiysk Greeks who lived on the Black Sea coast. He is the author of more than a hundred inventions, but he went down in history thanks to electric arc welding of metals, which he patented in 1882 in Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, the USA and other countries, calling his method "electrohephaestus".
Benardos' method spread across the planet like wildfire. Instead of fiddling with riveted bolts, it was enough to simply weld pieces of metal. However, it took about half a century for welding to finally take the dominant position among the installation methods. It seems to be a simple method - to create an electric arc between the consumable electrode in the hands of the welder and the pieces of metal that need to be welded. But the solution is elegant. True, it did not help the inventor to adequately meet old age, he died in poverty in 1905 in an almshouse.

5. Multi-engine aircraft "Ilya Muromets"

It is hard to believe now, but just over a hundred years ago, it was believed that a multi-engine aircraft would be extremely difficult and dangerous to fly. Igor Sikorsky proved the absurdity of these statements, who in the summer of 1913 took off a twin-engine aircraft, called Le Grand, and then its four-engine version, the Russian Knight.
On February 12, 1914, in Riga, at the training ground of the Russian-Baltic Plant, the four-engine Ilya Muromets took off. There were 16 passengers on board the four-engine aircraft - an absolute record of that time. The plane had a comfortable cabin, heating, a bath with a toilet and ... a promenade deck. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft in the summer of 1914, Igor Sikorsky flew the Ilya Muromets from St. Petersburg to Kyiv and back, setting a world record. During the First World War, these aircraft became the world's first heavy bombers.

6. ATV and helicopter

Igor Sikorsky also created the first production helicopter, the R-4, or S-47, which Vought-Sikorsky began producing in 1942. It was the first and only helicopter that participated in World War II, in the Pacific theater of operations, as a staff transport and for the evacuation of the wounded.
However, it is unlikely that the US military department would have given Igor Sikorsky the courage to experiment with helicopter technology, if it were not for the amazing rotorcraft of Georgy Botezat, who in 1922 began testing his helicopter, which the US military ordered him to. The helicopter was the first to really take off from the ground and could stay in the air. The possibility of vertical flight has thus been proven.
Botezata's helicopter was called the "flying octopus" because of its interesting design. It was a quadcopter: four screws were placed at the ends of metal trusses, and the control system was located in the center - exactly like modern radio-controlled drones.

7. Color photo

Color photography appeared in late XIX century, however, the images of that time were characterized by a shift to one or another part of the spectrum. Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky was one of the best in Russia and, like many of his colleagues around the world, dreamed of achieving the most natural color reproduction.
In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky studied color photography in Germany, under Adolf Miethe, who by that time was a world star in color photography. Returning home, Prokudin-Gorsky began to improve the chemistry of the process and in 1905 patented his own sensitizer, that is, a substance that increases the sensitivity of photographic plates. As a result, he was able to produce exceptional quality negatives.
Prokudin-Gorsky organized a number of expeditions around the territory Russian Empire, shooting both famous people (for example, Leo Tolstoy), and peasants, temples, landscapes, factories - thus creating an amazing collection of colored Russia. Prokudin-Gorsky's demonstrations aroused great interest in the world and prompted other specialists to develop new principles for color printing.

8. Parachute

As you know, the idea of ​​a parachute was proposed by Leonardo da Vinci, and several centuries later, with the advent of aeronautics, regular jumps from under balloons began: parachutes were hung under them in a partially open state. In 1912, the American Barry was able to leave the plane with such a parachute and, importantly, landed alive.
The problem was solved by whoever in what much. For example, the American Stefan Banich made a parachute in the form of an umbrella with telescopic spokes that were attached around the pilot's torso. This design worked, although it was still not very convenient. But the engineer Gleb Kotelnikov decided that it was all about the material, and made his parachute out of silk, packing it in a compact satchel. Kotelnikov patented his invention in France on the eve of World War I.
But besides the backpack parachute, he came up with another interesting thing. He tested the opening of the parachute by opening it while the car was moving, which literally stood up in his tracks. So Kotelnikov came up with a brake parachute as an emergency braking system for aircraft.

9. Theremin

The history of this musical instrument, which makes strange "cosmic" sounds, began with the development of alarms. It was then that a descendant of the French Huguenots, Lev Theremin, in 1919 drew attention to the fact that a change in the position of the body near the antennas of the oscillatory circuits affects the volume and tone of the sound in the control dynamics.
Everything else was a matter of technique. And marketing: Theremin showed his musical instrument to the head of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, an enthusiast of the cultural revolution, and then demonstrated it in the States.
The life of Lev Theremin was difficult, he knew both ups and downs, glory, and camps. His musical instrument lives on to this day. The coolest version is Moog Etherwave. Theremin can be heard from the most advanced and quite pop performers. This is truly an invention for all time.

10. Color television

Vladimir Zworykin was born into a merchant family in the city of Murom. The boy had the opportunity from childhood to read a lot and to make all sorts of experiments - his father encouraged this passion for science in every possible way. Starting to study in St. Petersburg, he learned about cathode ray tubes and came to the conclusion that the future of television lies precisely in electronic circuits.
Zworykin was lucky, he left Russia on time in 1919. He worked for many years and in the early 1930s he patented a transmitting television tube - an iconoscope. Even earlier, he designed one of the variants of the receiving tube - a kinescope. And then, already in the 1940s, he broke the light beam into blue, red and green colors and got color TV.
In addition, Zworykin developed a night vision device, an electron microscope, and many other interesting things. He invented all his long life and even in retirement he continued to amaze with his new solutions.

11. VCR

The AMPEX company was created in 1944 by Russian emigrant Alexander Matveevich Ponyatov, who took three letters of his initials for the name and added EX - short for "excellent". At first, Poniatov produced sound recording equipment, but in the early 50s he focused on the development of video recording.
By that time, there were already experiments recording a television image, but they required a huge amount of tape. Ponyatov and colleagues suggested recording the signal across the tape using a block of rotating heads. On November 30, 1956, the first recorded CBS news aired. And in 1960, the company, represented by its leader and founder, received an Oscar for outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry.
Fate brought Alexander Poniatov together with interesting people. He was a competitor of Zworykin, Ray Dolby, the creator of the famous noise reduction system, worked with him, and one of the first clients and investors was the famous Bing Crosby. And one more thing: by order of Poniatov, birches were planted near any office - in memory of the Motherland.

12. Tetris

A long time ago, 30 years ago, the Pentomino puzzle was popular in the USSR: it was necessary to lay various figures consisting of five squares on a field lined in a box. Even collections of problems were published, and the results were discussed.
From a mathematical point of view, such a puzzle was an excellent test for a computer. And so Aleksey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote such a program for his Elektronika 60 computer. But there was not enough power, and Alexey removed one cube from the figures, that is, he made a “tetramino”. Well, then the idea came up that the figures fell into the "glass". This is how Tetris was born.
It was the first computer game because of the Iron Curtain, and for many, the first computer game in general. And although many new toys have already appeared, Tetris still attracts with its apparent simplicity and real complexity.

Name Nicholas Copernicus one way or another, almost everyone who studied at school heard it. However, information about him, as a rule, is placed in one or two lines, along with a couple more names of prominent scientists who strengthened the triumph of the heliocentric system of the world - and Galileo Galilei.

This triumvirate is so entrenched in the minds that it sometimes causes confusion in the minds of even high-ranking politicians. Former Speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, defending the doubtful scientific developments of his old acquaintance and "scientific co-author" academician Petrik, threw an immediately famous phrase: “The term pseudoscience goes far into the Middle Ages. We can remember Copernicus, who was burned for saying “But the Earth is still spinning!”

Thus, the politician mixed the fate of all three scientists into one heap. Although, in fact, Nicolaus Copernicus, unlike his students, managed to happily escape the persecution of the Inquisition.

Canon "by pull"

The future creator of a new picture of the world was born on February 19, 1473 in the now Polish city of Torun, in a merchant family. Interestingly, there is no consensus even about his national origin. Despite the fact that Copernicus is considered a Pole, there is not a single document that a scientist wrote in Polish. It is known that Nikolai's mother was German, and his father, a native of Krakow, may have been a Pole, but it is not possible to establish this for sure.

Copernicus' parents died early, and Nicholas ended up in the care of his maternal uncle, a Catholic priest. Luke Watzenrode. It was thanks to his uncle that in 1491 Copernicus entered the University of Krakow, where, among other sciences, he became interested in astronomy.

Uncle Nicholas, meanwhile, became a bishop, and in every possible way contributed to the career of his nephew. In 1497 Copernicus continued his studies at the University of Bologna in Italy. Interestingly, neither in Krakow nor in Bologna did Nikolai receive any degree.

From 1500, Copernicus studied medicine at the University of Padua, after which he passed the exams and received a doctorate in canon law.

After spending three years in Italy as a practicing physician, Nicholas returned to his uncle, the bishop, under whom he took the position of secretary and confidant, while also acting as a personal physician.

The career of Copernicus, who by that time had the ecclesiastical rank of canon, was a complete success. Remaining secretary to his uncle, Nikolai managed to do astronomical research in Krakow.

The Plumber and the Plague Killer

The comfortable life ended in 1512, with the death of the bishop's uncle. Copernicus moved to the town of Frombork, where he had been nominally a canon for several years, and began his spiritual duties.

Copernicus also did not leave his scientific activity, starting to develop his own model of the world.

It must be said that Copernicus did not make a big secret of his ideas. His handwritten text "A Small Commentary on Hypotheses Relating to Celestial Motions" even circulated among friends. However, the full development of the new system will take the scientist almost 40 years.

The astronomical works of Copernicus became known in Europe, but at first there was no persecution of the concept he proposed. First, the astronomer himself rather carefully formulated own ideas, secondly, the church fathers for a long time could not decide whether to consider the heliocentric system of the world a heresy.

Heliocentric system of the world. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Copernicus himself, not forgetting about the main work of life, managed to be noted in other sciences: he developed a new monetary system for Poland, as a physician actively contributed to the elimination of the plague of 1519, and even designed a water supply system for houses fromborka.

Since 1531, Copernicus was engaged only in the development of his heliocentric system and medical practice. His health began to deteriorate, and in the last years of his life he was helped by students and like-minded people in his work.

IN Last year Copernicus' life was struck by paralysis, and a couple of months before his death, he fell into a coma. The scientist died in his bed on May 24, 1543, never having seen the work of his life, the book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, published. It was first published in Nuremberg, in the same year 1543.

Life's work

It should be noted that in his criticism of the Ptolemaic picture of the world with the Earth at the center of the universe, Copernicus was far from the first. ancient authors such as Nikita of Syracuse And Philolaus believed that the earth revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. However, the authority of such luminaries of science as Ptolemy And Aristotle, was higher. The final victory of the geocentric system came when the Christian Church made it the basis of its picture of the world.

Interestingly, the work of Copernicus himself was far from accurate. Approving the heliocentric system of the world, the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the movement of the planets in orbits, for example, he believed the orbits of the planets to be perfectly round, not elliptical. As a result, even enthusiasts of his theory were quite puzzled when, during astronomical observations, the planets turned out to be in the wrong place, which was prescribed by Copernicus' calculations. And for critics of his works, this was a gift at all.

As already mentioned, Copernicus happily escaped the persecution of the Inquisition. The Catholic Church had no time for him - she fought a desperate struggle against the Reformation. Some bishops, of course, even during the lifetime of the scientist accused him of heresy, but the matter did not come to real persecution.

Only in 1616, with Pope Paul V, the Catholic Church officially forbade adhering to and defending the Copernican theory as a heliocentric system of the world, since such an interpretation is contrary to Scripture. It is a paradox, but at the same time, according to the decision of theologians, the heliocentric model could still be used to calculate the motion of the planets.

It is also interesting that the book of Copernicus "On the rotation of celestial bodies" was included in the famous Roman Index of Forbidden Books, a kind of medieval prototype of the "black list" of banned sites on the Runet, for only 4 years, from 1616 to 1620. After that, it returned to circulation, albeit with an ideological correction - references to the heliocentric system of the world were cut out of it, while leaving the mathematical calculations that lay in its justification.

This attitude towards the work of Copernicus only spurred interest in it. The followers developed and refined the theory of the great scientist, eventually establishing it as a correct picture of the world.

The burial place of Nicolaus Copernicus became known only in 2005. On May 22, 2010, the remains of the great scientist were solemnly reburied in cathedral Frombork.

Reburial of the remains of Copernicus. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The Catholic Church admitted its guilt in denying the correct theory of Copernicus only in 1993, when the Pope was John Paul II- countryman of Copernicus, Pole Karol Wojtyla.

Recalcitrant Bruno and humble Galileo

It is necessary to mention the fate of two followers of Nicolaus Copernicus - Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilee.

Giordano Bruno, who not only shared the teachings of Copernicus, but also went much further than him, proclaiming the plurality of worlds in the Universe, defining the stars as distant luminaries, similar to the Sun, was very active in promoting his ideas. Moreover, he encroached on many church postulates, including the immaculate nature of the conception of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, the Inquisition began to persecute him, and in 1592 Giordano Bruno was arrested.

Giordano Bruno. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

For more than six years, the inquisitors sought to renounce the scientist, who was also a monk, but they failed to break Bruno's will. On February 17, 1600, the scientist was burned in the Square of Flowers in Rome.

Unlike the writings of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno's books remained in the Index of Banned Books until its most recent publication in 1948. 400 years after the execution of Giordano Bruno, the Catholic Church considers the execution of the scientist justified and refuses to rehabilitate him.

Galileo Galilei. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Galileo Galilei, whose works and discoveries in astronomy are unusually great, did not show stamina like Giordano Bruno. Having found himself in the hands of the Inquisition at almost the age of 70, after torture and under the threat of "sharing the fate of the heretic Bruno", Galileo in 1633 chose to renounce the heliocentric system, of which he had been a defender throughout his life. And, of course, the unfortunate old man, who narrowly escaped the auto-da-fe, did not even think of throwing the impudent “But still she spins!”

Galileo Galilei will be finally rehabilitated only in 1992, also by decision of Pope John Paul II.