Who was the first person to find out that the earth rotates around the sun?
Greek philosopher, Aristarchus of Samos (310-230BC), proposed an alternative model in which the Earth and the planets execute uniform circular orbits around the Sun–which is fixed. Moreover, the Moon orbits around the Earth, and the Earth rotates daily about a North-South axis. The order of the planetary orbits is as follows: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn–with Mercury closest to the Sun. This model became known as the heliocentric model of the Solar System. The heliocentric model was generally rejected by the ancient philosophers for three main reasons: 1) If the Earth is rotating about its axis, and orbiting around the Sun, then the Earth must be in motion. However, we cannot “feel” this motion. Nor does this motion give rise to any obvious observational consequences. Hence, the Earth must be stationary. 2) If the Earth is executing a circular orbit around the Sun then the positions of the stars should be slightly different when the Earth is on opposite sides of the
