Galileo Galilei pointed a telescope at the sky and saw things that demolished a thousand years of accepted truth — moons orbiting Jupiter, phases of Venus, mountains on the Moon. His observations confirmed that the Earth was not the center of the universe, and the Catholic Church made him pay for it with house arrest for the rest of his life.

This episode traces Galileo from his early experiments in mechanics through the telescopic discoveries that shattered the Aristotelian cosmos, his increasingly dangerous clash with the Church, and the trial that became the defining confrontation between science and religious authority.

• Galileo’s early experiments with falling bodies and the pendulum that challenged Aristotle
• The telescopic discoveries of 1609-1610 that rewrote humanity’s understanding of the cosmos
• His escalating conflict with the Catholic Church over Copernican heliocentrism
• The Inquisition trial, forced recantation, and the house arrest that lasted until his death