Several centuries after the Mayan civilization dissipated, Venus played a major role in the upheaval of the then current model of the Universe.  Galileo Galilei sat in his Florence home one November evening in 1610, observing Venus as the Evening star through his telescope when he made a profound discovery.  He was so wary of his new knowledge he hid it from the scientific community until he could have it confirmed by a trusted friend.  Galileo had discovered Venus has phases.  He saw Venus as crescent shape, then over the coming months it vanished, reappeared, and gradually formed a full phase.  He knew that these phases could only occur if Venus orbited the Sun, rather than the Earth in the current model of the universe.    His findings gave evidence to the treatise Copernicus declared on his death bed:  That the Sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.  Inquisitors in Rome pronounced this view heretical and forced Galileo to denounce his findings (White 96).  However the ripples in the water had started and people began to reconfigure the model of the Universe.  With the discovery of the phases of Venus science adopted a more realistic world view and we began to understand a truer order of the Universe.
    The phases of Venus that Galileo observed occur by the sun illuminating half of Venus.  As the earth and Venus orbit the Sun different portions of this illuminated area can be seen from earth.  Venus has phases exactly like the moon, from crescent to full and back to a crescent phase.  When Venus reaches an Inferior conjunction, a point in space almost directly between the sun and the earth, we can visibly see it’s atmosphere.  However, what existed below the atmosphere remained a mystery.