DURING THIS WEEK in 1610, Galileo began what is probably the most significant contribution he made to science. He began observing the moons of Jupiter through a homemade telescope, originally thinking he was looking at three stars near Jupiter, strung out in a line through the planet.
The next evening, these stars seemed to have moved the wrong way, which caught his attention. Galileo continued to observe the stars and Jupiter for the next week. On January 13, a fourth star appeared. After a few weeks, Galileo had observed that the four stars never left the vicinity of Jupiter and appeared to be carried along with the planet, and that they changed their position with respect to each other and Jupiter.
Finally, Galileo determined that what he was observing were not stars, but planetary bodies that were in orbit around Jupiter. This discovery provided evidence in support of the Copernican system and showed that everything did not revolve around the Earth.
Now known as the four satellites, or moons of Jupiter, these celestial beauties are known as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It was this 4th, Callisto, that he observed on this day 403 years ago.
If you know me at all, you know how dearly I love Galileo. Have you read about his adventure in WalMart? You should. If you know me at all, you also know how dearly I dislike memoir prompts and eschew assignments. Why? They don’t work, teaching you only to practice instead of teaching you to write with intent.
Creative inspiration works. Try it. Have you got a story about learning to stargaze? Use this anniversary as your news peg and write on. Want to learn to write on deadline and get something published on the date of an event such as this? Use my deadline calendar.
Enjoy.
