Print entitled: Geometric figure of earth, sun, and moon calculated by Aristarchus to approximate real scale of the solar system. Aristarchus (310-230 BC), was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in Greece. He presented the first known heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe. He identified the "central fire" with the Sun, and put the other planets in their correct order of distance around the Sun. His astronomical ideas were rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy. The heliocentric theory was successfully revived 1800 years later by Copernicus, after which Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton gave the theoretical explanation based on laws of physics.