Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Some of his biggest contributions to the field of astronomy include the discovery that Jupiter is orbited by more than one moon, the phases of Venus, and he was one of the first to observe sunspots. Galileo observed through a telescope what he thought to be fixed stars around Jupiter, but on the next night they had all changed positions, which led him to the discovery of three of the four largest satellites orbiting Jupiter. From September 1610, Galileo observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to that of the Moon. Lastly, Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots, although Kepler had unwittingly observed one in 1607, but mistook it for a transit of Mercury. Galileo Galilei was one of the most influential astronomers in our history, and his observations led to many future conclusions.
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