Description The life of Galileo Galilei — mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher. In every era, there are people who break free from conventional thinking and dare to imagine something new. They are courageous individuals who boldly challenge what others blindly accept as truth. The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was just such a person. Galileo was the first to use a telescope to observe the night sky. Through his observations, he found clear evidence that the Earth was not the center of the universe — that, like the other planets, it too revolved around the sun. Galileo carefully recorded everything he observed, using his telescope to bring the stars in the heavens closer to the people on the ground. Galileo changed the way people thought about the Milky Way. While this was tremendously valuable, it was also deeply unsettling to some. Galileo had overturned long-held beliefs about the order of the universe and humanity's place within it — beliefs that people had trusted since ancient times. Many feared that Galileo might throw the whole world into confusion. This book presents the remarkable life of Galileo Galilei through the eyes of artist Peter Sís. With spare, delicate text and page after page of beautiful artwork, Peter Sís tells the story of Galileo's lifelong struggle to reveal the truth, 350 years ago. Story Summary Galileo Galilei broke away from Ptolemy's view of the universe, which placed the Earth at its center, and instead argued for and proved Copernicus's model — that the Earth moves around the sun. More curious about the stars than anyone else, Galileo used his telescope to study the sky, discovering new stars and publishing his findings in a book called The Starry Messenger. As Galileo's theories gained wide acceptance and his fame grew, his ideas came to be seen as a challenge to the authority of the Church. He was summoned before the Pope and found guilty. Confined to his home for the rest of his life, Galileo never wavered in his convictions about the mysteries of the sky and the universe. Three hundred years later, his ideas were proven correct. His vision endures to this day, shining on like a star.