BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists from Italy and Bratain are trying to carry out DNA tests of the father of astronomy Galileo to check whether his big severe vision problems have influenced some of his findings, according to media reports Friday.
The scientists said the tests would help answer some unresolved questions about the health of the astronomer.
"If we knew exactly what was wrong with his eyes we could use computer models to recreate what he saw in his telescope," said Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of History and Science in Florence, the city where Galileo is buried.
Galileo( 1564-1642), is known to have had intermittent eye problems for the second half of his life and was totally blind for his last two years.
Galluzzi suspects one of the "errors" that Galileo made is that he believed Saturn was not perfectly round but may have had an irregular, inflated side.
With his 20-power telescope and with his eyes in bad shape he might have mistaken Saturn's gaseous ring to surmise that it was formed of one planet with two moons as satellites.
Galluzzi said he is waiting for permission from church to exhume the body of astronomer Galileo.