Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T21:38:11.237Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kepler, Galileo and the birth of modern astronomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Owen Gingerich*
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Science Center 371, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA email: ginger@cfa.harvard.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The International Year of Astronomy marks the 400th anniversary of Kepler's Astronomia nova and the first use of the telescope for astronomy, most notably leading to Galileo's Sidereus nuncius (1610). Kepler's book for the first time argued strongly for a physical basis to astronomical explanations. Galileo's work showed that a coherent understanding was more important for scientific progress than specific proofs. The efforts of both astronomers undermined the traditional geocentric cosmology and essentially brought about the birth of modern astronomy.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Donahue, W. 1992, (translator) Johannes Kepler: New Astronomy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Drake, S. 1987, (translator and commentator), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (Garden City: Doubleday)Google Scholar
Gingerich, G. 1993, The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (New York: American Institute of Physics)Google Scholar
Gingerich, G. 1995, in Galileo a Padova 1592-1610, IV, Tribute to Galileo in Padua (Trieste: Edizioni Lint), p. 325Google Scholar
Van Helden, A. 1989, (translator and commentator), Galileo Galilei: Sidereus Nuncius or The Sidereal Messenger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)Google Scholar
Voelkel, J. R. 2001, The Composition of Kepler's Astronomia nova (Princeton: Princeton University Press)Google Scholar