11-July-2009, 05:16 AM
|
 |
Order of Kilopi
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio, Tx.
Posts: 8,436
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by ToeQuestor
If Galileo had noted that Mars increased and diminished in size during its orbit, then this could have been a good clue, although perhaps not a proof, that planets orbited the sun.
|
Yes, but I suspect that the Tychonic model may have been already adopted by the Jesuits before this was observed. Also, Mars was not observable much at all for at least the first half of the year.
Quote:
|
The Church wished him to just say that he only had a hypothesis, not a truth. (Parallax measurements were not yet known.)
|
Yes, and that is what greatly helped de Revolutionibus, thanks to Ossiander (a Lutheran) sneaking the hypothetical view for the book into the introduction.
Quote:
|
It was also a time of challenge from the Protestant reformation and thus the necessary Catholic counter-reformation. Galileo was in the right mind at the wrong time.
|
Yes. The Pope was taking flack from places like Spain who were demonstrating, apparently, more zeal than he and the Italians were. To punish Galileo, their hero, may have given the Pope more credibility in the larger political arena, though less credibility with powerful Tuscany (home of Galileo). The price paid by the Church, however, shouldn't last more than, say, 500 or 600 years. 
__________________
Lighten up! This is a stellar board!
|