Page 44 - Writes of Passage

from DIALOGUE CONCERNING THE TWO CHIEF WORLD SYSTEMS
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
Galileo
The Italian astronomer, physicist and philosopher Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) was born over 400 years ago, and we can still recognise the insight of these words today. The universe benefits us in so many little ways that can distract us from its wonder – and the biggest forces in the universe, like the sun, are connected to the very smallest – a bunch of grapes. Galileo made hugely significant scientific discoveries – he was the first person to observe the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter – and spent the last years of his life under house arrest, for championing heliocentrism, the astronomical model that showed the sun at the centre of the solar system, orbited by the planets.
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