Ever since Man started looking at the Moon with his naked eyes, he was curious to learn about this brightly shining heavenly body. It was an Italian scientist who closely observed the Moon for the first time. His name was Galileo Galilei.
It happened in 1609. Galileo built an equipment called telescope that made objects in space look larger and closer.
For centuries, scientists had believed that the Moon had a smooth surface. Galileo shattered this belief; he observed that the Moon’s surface was not so smooth; instead it had mountains, pits, valleys, shadows and other features, just like the surface of the Earth. He thought the vast dark shadowy areas to be seas of water and called them ‘maria’, the Latin word for sea. Galileo’s work laid the foundation for modern studies in astronomy.
Picture Credit : Google