section_path: Scientific contributions/Astronomy
section_name: Astronomy
paragraph_text: Astronomy
  
  Using his refracting telescope, Galileo observed in late 1609 that the surface of the Moon is not smooth. Early the next year, he observed the four largest moons of Jupiter. Later in 1610, he observed the phases of Venus—a proof of heliocentrism—as well as Saturn, though he thought the planet's rings were two other planets. In 1612, he observed Neptune and noted its motion, but did not identify it as a planet.
  
  Galileo made studies of sunspots, the Milky Way, and made various observations about stars, including how to measure their apparent size without a telescope.
  
  He coined the term Aurora Borealis in 1619 from the Roman goddess of the dawn and the Greek name for the north wind, to describe lights in the northern and southern sky when particles from the solar wind energise the magnetosphere.