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Galileo Galileo (1564-1642), was an Italian physicist and astronomer, who, with the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, initiated the scientific revolution that flowered in the work of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Born Galileo Galilei, his main contributions were, in astronomy, the use of the telescope in observation and the discovery of sunspots, lunar mountains and valleys, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. In physics, he discovered the laws of …

…theological interference stands beyond science. Since the full publication of Galileo's trial documents in the 1870s, entire responsibility for Galileo's condemnation has customarily been placed on the Roman Catholic church. This conceals the role of the philosophy professors who first persuaded theologians to link Galileo's science with heresy. An investigation into the astronomer's condemnation, calling for its reversal, was opened in 1979 by Pope John Paul II. In October 1992 a papal commission acknowledged the Vatican's error.