Various positions of the moons of Jupiter in relation to the planet Jupiter.

With the telescope, Galileo discovered that there is more to the celestial bodies than is discernable with the naked eye. He recognized that Jupiter is orbited by four moons. He also observed structures on the moon, which he interpreted as hills and valleys. This led him to conflict with the neo-scholastic doctrine of his time, which assumes that the Moon has a perfect spherical form.

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