A European Informational Website
learn more
Aristarchus (310 BC - ca. 230 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in ancient Greece. He is considered the first person to propose a scientific heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe (hence he is sometimes known as the "Greek Copernicus"). He was influenced by his teacher, the pythagoréan Philolaus of Kroton, but in contrast to Philolaus he had both identified the central fire with the Sun, as well as putting other planets in correct order from the Sun. His astronomical ideas were rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy until they were successfully revived and extensively developed by Copernicus nearly 2000 years later.