But his most profound discovery was the fact that there is vastly more to Nature than meets the eye. For millennia we believed that what we saw of Nature is all that there is of Nature. Galileo's observations of the Moon, Sun and planets showed that our perspective was, in fact, severely limited. Our understanding of the universe, and our place in it, were necessarily constrained by our direct perception of it.
We have discovered a vast (and for all we know, perhaps infinite) depth to Nature of which, until quite recently, we were completely unaware. The use of instruments that extend, and augment, our senses has forever changed our view of the universe.
 | Telescopes |