Venus was not "discovered" by a single person because it is one of the brightest objects in the sky and has been known since ancient times, observed by early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks
. The first person to make telescopic observations of Venus was the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610. He observed Venus's phases, similar to the Moon's, which provided crucial evidence that Venus orbits the Sun and not the Earth, supporting the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus
. In summary:
- Venus has been known since prehistoric times and observed by many ancient cultures.
- Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Venus through a telescope and make significant scientific discoveries about it in 1610
