Replacing Aristotelian logic with experiment, Galileo showed that all bodies fall with the same acceleration regardless of weight and that speed increases with the distance fallen. His improved telescope revealed four moons of Jupiter and craters on the Moon, shattering the belief in perfect, metaphysical heavens and proving that celestial bodies can orbit more than Earth. From these insights he concluded that the laws of physics are universal, paving the way for the heliocentric model of Nicolaus Copernicus, where Earth orbits the sun and the sun neither rises nor sets. Unable to persuade the Church, he recanted under the Inquisition, lived under house arrest with his works banned until 1835, yet his experiment-driven method cemented his legacy as the father of modern physics.