Who was that famous astronomer?

Giordano Bruno wasn't exactly an astronomer, more of a philosopher (as well as a priest); but he had some theories involving the possibility of life on other planets. The Inquisition threw him into prison for six years, and when he refused to recant, they gagged him, tied him to a stake, piled the wood up around him and let him die a slow agonizing death.

Galileo wasn't tortured -- the inquisitors merely took him on a tour through their dungeon and showed him the instruments of torture. So he recanted and spent the last years of his life under house arrest.

And Copernicus refrained from publishing his discoveries, precisely because he knew what the Inquisition would do to him if he did.

The history of religion is the history of stubborn opposition to the advance of human knowledge.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo's telescope discoveries did not indicate a moving earth) and his one "proof" based upon the tides was invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty five years earlier by Kepler. Since his work finished by putting the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an old friend of Galileo's) was very offended. After the "trial" and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot err, and saw his system as an alternate interpretation of the biblical texts.

Also check into Copernicus, who died of natural causes, predates Gallelio, and also had controversy with the Church for proposing the sun, rather than the Earth, was at the center.

the purely favourite astronomer i understand of who may were murdered replaced into Tycho Brahe. there's a e book, Heavenly Intrigue by Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, which argues that Tycho replaced into murdered by Kepler with a view to attain get entry to to his archives.

You're thinking of Galileo Galilei, but he was not killed. The church forced him to recant, which he did to avoid imprisonment and excommunication, but he was not executed.

Galileo Galilei... no i'm pretty sure this is the guy, he's thinking of,

dont believe in such things !!! Believe God not human...

asstronomous........sorry, galileo is correct...