Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer during the Renaissance. He made several important scientific discoveries using the newly invented telescope. His observations of the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus helped overturn the Ptolemaic model of the universe and supported the Copernican view that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun. This led to conflicts with the Catholic Church and resulted in Galileo being tried and found "vehemently suspect of heresy". Despite this, his work laid the foundation for modern observational astronomy and physics.