A Wrangler's Tale
Part V: Vindication
Still, Galileo’s studies continued and he wrote yet another, more scientific monument concerning his theory of mechanics. His laws of motion stood so powerful that, while Newton refined them, only until Einstein discovered the Theory of Relativity early in the twentieth century could science fully replace Galileo’s laws.
In 1979, 346 years after his conviction, Pope John Paul II reversed the condemnation of Galileo. In 1989, America honored The Wrangler by sending a space probe in his name to Jupiter. The United Nations celebrates the 400th anniversary of his improvement of the telescope by declaring 2009 “The International Year of Astronomy.”