(1643-1727AD)
Isaac Newton, born in Florence, is still widely considered one of the greatest minds in astronomy and physics. And he continues where Galileo left off, by creating the first reflecting telescope; this telescope showed a much sharper image than previous telescopes were capable of.
But Isaac Newton's biggest contribution to astronomy was when an apple fell from a tree, this is of course, gravity. Newton scientifically proved that we are all being affected by this invisible force called gravity. And on a much larger scale, enormous body's of mass such as planets are also affected by gravity. This law of gravity, showing that the larger something is, the more gravitational force it has, once again proved that the heliocentric universe theory was correct. Because the sun was much larger than Earth, therefore had the gravitational power to pull all of the planets into its orbit. The Earth had nowhere near the same amount of mass to be the center of the solar system.
A model of Newton's understanding of the solar system, emphasizing the sheer size of the sun (in the center), thus having a large gravitational force to keep the other planets in its orbit.
Isaac Newton's invention--the reflecting telescope.
