From SRP Author Cameron Cooper:
It’s such an evocative name.
I’m a huge West Wing fan — I’ve seen all the episodes more than once. And every time I hear–or read, actually, as I do not hang out with people who frequently talk about astronomical features of our galaxy–but every time I hear “The Galilean Moons,” I get the same reaction that CJ Cregg did when the President intoned “Galileo V.” (Season 2, episode 9, “Galileo”).
“The Galileon Moons” makes me think of swashbuckling science fiction or the old Victorian fantasy fiction, the sort of stories that HG Wells wrote, or the pulp fiction of the 1920s.
I might have to see if there’s a story in that name…
This day in 1610, Galileo Galilei spotted four of Jupiter’s moons. It’s no coincidence that the four he spotted were the four largest. Four hundred and four years ago, telescopes were in their infancy. Galileo made improvements to his telescope, and voila! He could see the moons distinctly.
That presented a bit of a problem, because back in 1610, the scientists and the church (often, the same people) believed very much in the ascendency of Earth, and that the sun and the moon circled around Earth.
Galileo had already been insisting for several years that everything circled the sun, which gave him a heretical reputation.
The discovery of four moons that were clearly circling around Jupiter gave weight to Galileo’s theory which, of course, didn’t win him any popularity among the authorities of the day.
In fact, Galileo’s absolute certainty that the sun was the centre of the known universe resulted in him being put on trial for heresy in 1632, and given house arrest for the rest of his natural life. He died ten years later, but not before he researched and wrote some of the most influential science books of the Renaissance.
There are now 95 known moons of Jupiter. And they don’t sound nearly as cool as the Galilean Moons…
Cameron Cooper
SRP Author
Check Cam’s books here on Stories Rule Press.
