Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. He died on January 8, 1642 in Arcetri near Florence, which means he lived to be seventy-seven years old. While Galileo never married, he had three children with Marina Gamba.

This remarkable man was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, and natural philosopher. His contributions to the world of science led to advancements in the science of motion and to the development of the scientific method. He is widely credited with being the father of modern physics.

A large portion of his career was spent at the University of Padua, where he taught astronomy, geometry, and mechanics. His lectures became widely known for Galileo's entertaining method of address and for the revolutionary content which he taught. He later developed a telescope, which merchants saw value in, and became known as one of the developers of the modern telescope.

At the time when Galileo lived, the prevailing ideas about the universe and how it worked were still led by the Aristotelian beliefs of the Christian church. His observations of the skies through his telescope led him to suggest that the sun was the center of the solar system. For this, Galileo was accused twice of being a heretic.