Galileo Galilei and Satellite Navigation
Alessandro De Angelis

TL;DR
This paper explores the historical development of satellite navigation, from Galileo's early insights on longitude determination using Jupiter's satellites to modern GPS technology, highlighting its evolution and significance.
Contribution
It provides a historical overview linking Galileo's pioneering ideas to contemporary satellite navigation systems like Galileo.
Findings
Galileo's method was a precursor to modern GPS.
The European Galileo system is named after Galileo Galilei.
Exhibitions have showcased the evolution of geolocation technology.
Abstract
In 1492, for the first time, an unknown ocean opened up before sailors: weeks of navigation and no idea how to pinpoint their location. Since ancient times, navigators had known how to determine latitude by using the North Star, but the "problem of longitude" was different. More than a century later, Galileo Galilei discovered in Padua Jupiter's satellites and quickly realized that a sailor who could observe their eclipses would know his own longitude. Yet his brilliant insight was 400 years ahead of the technology of his time. Impractical at sea, on land this idea became a formidable tool for cartography and ushered in the age of the image of the world. Today the technique can be realized thanks to artificial satellites, and the Tuscan genius' name has reached space with the European satellite system named Galileo. An exhibition in Paris, organized by the Permanent Representation of…
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Taxonomy
TopicsHistorical Astronomy and Related Studies · History and Developments in Astronomy · Historical Geography and Cartography
