Excerpt:
The course explores two revolutions in our perception of the universe. The first, in which Galileo played the leading role, was the realization that what we see in the heavens -- the moon, the planets, the sun and stars -- are physical objects. For example, the moon has a rocky surface, not unlike some parts of earth, and is not made of some exotic ethereal substance, as had been generally believed before Galileo. This discovery led to the realization that the motions of the moon and planets obeyed the same physical laws as ordinary things moving on earth. Newton put this all together to give the first unified picture of the universe.