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The phases of Venus, observed by Galileo in 1610

A replica of the earliest surviving telescope attributed to Galileo Galilei, on display at the Griffith Observatory.

Dome of the cathedral of Pisa with the "lamp of Galileo"

heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Universe.

Aristarchus's 3rd century BC calculations on the relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon, from a 10th century AD Greek copy

In the 17th century AD Galileo Galilei opposed the Roman Catholic Church by his strong support for heliocentrism

The geocentric model of the cosmos is a paradigm which places the Earth at the center of the universe. Common in ancient Greece, it was believed by both Aristotle and Ptolemy. Most Greeks assumed that the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets orbit Earth

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, the preclassic Maya and their neighbors independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC. Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.[citation needed]