My spin on it.

It was likely in August of 1616 that Galileo wrote his good friend Cesi, "...Saturn, whose two companions are no loner two small perfectly round globes as they were before, but are at present much larger bodies and no longer round in shape,..., two half-ellipses with dark traingles in the middle and contiguous in the middle globe of Saturn, which is seen as it always has been, perfectly round."

[Added: It is believed it was at this time that Galileo came to realize that these contiguous objects were not spherical bodies. Source: Galileo at Work... Stillman Drake]

The answer, it. [Added: Not to be taken as necessarily singular in nature.]

Yes, but the Bourbon Stars were not. [So, yes and no]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.