Galileo Galilei is one of the most renowned figures in astronomy history, as he was one of the biggest and most meticulous supporters of the heliocentric model of the universe. However, Galileo not only had to fight against the fact that for all of history the idea of the geocentric solar system had been accepted as fact, he also had to deal with the fact that as a devout Catholic, he had to follow under the guidelines of the Catholic Church’s teaching. In Italy during Galileo’s lifetime, The Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme and to claim or try and prove that the earth was not the center of the solar system (and the universe) was deemed as heretical (which is why Copernicus waited until he was on his death bed before publishing his theories on heliocentrism. Despite Galileo’s extremely accurate data and falsification of Aristotelian physics, he was warned several times by the Catholic Church and its leaders to back away from the heretical theory.
Galileo went through a long and arduous period of fending off the church and trying to prove his theories correct through essays and publications. It all came to a head in June of 1633 when he was called before the Roman Inquisition to confess his crime of going against the doctrine of the Catholic Church as well as his sin of heresy. At such an old age (around 70), Galileo was tired of fighting and had done all he could do to prove heliocentrism and had done the work for future scientists to prove him correct. He confessed to the Inquisition and claimed that they were correct (a theory he did not believe). Because he confessed, he was excused from death and instead lived out the rest of his days under house arrest.
Although today we are taught that heliocentrism is correct and it seems like common knowledge, it was certainly not always the case. So many ancient astronomers laid the groundwork for the knowledge we hold today, and Galileo was one the most influential of these.
Blogging through the Solar System of Vandy! 
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