<P> The first person known to have proposed a heliocentric system , however , was Aristarchus of Samos ( c. 270 BC ) . Like Eratosthenes , Aristarchus calculated the size of the Earth , and measured the size and distance of the Moon and Sun , in a treatise which has survived . From his estimates , he concluded that the Sun was six to seven times wider than the Earth and thus hundreds of times more voluminous . His writings on the heliocentric system are lost , but some information is known from surviving descriptions and critical commentary by his contemporaries , such as Archimedes . Some have suggested that his calculation of the relative size of the Earth and Sun led Aristarchus to conclude that it made more sense for the Earth to be moving than for the huge Sun to be moving around it . Though the original text has been lost , a reference in Archimedes ' book The Sand Reckoner describes another work by Aristarchus in which he advanced an alternative hypothesis of the heliocentric model . Archimedes wrote : </P>
<P> The first person known to have proposed a heliocentric system , however , was Aristarchus of Samos ( c. 270 BC ) . Like Eratosthenes , Aristarchus calculated the size of the Earth , and measured the size and distance of the Moon and Sun , in a treatise which has survived . From his estimates , he concluded that the Sun was six to seven times wider than the Earth and thus hundreds of times more voluminous . His writings on the heliocentric system are lost , but some information is known from surviving descriptions and critical commentary by his contemporaries , such as Archimedes . Some have suggested that his calculation of the relative size of the Earth and Sun led Aristarchus to conclude that it made more sense for the Earth to be moving than for the huge Sun to be moving around it . Though the original text has been lost , a reference in Archimedes ' book The Sand Reckoner describes another work by Aristarchus in which he advanced an alternative hypothesis of the heliocentric model . Archimedes wrote : </P>
who discovered the sun was the center of the solar system
who discovered the sun was the center of the solar system
Aristarchus of Samos
Aristarchus of Samos