Proposition 3. The circle in the moon which divides the dark and the bright portions is least when the cone comprehending both the sun and the moon h… - Aristarchus of Samos

About Aristarchus of Samos

Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 BC) was an ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who devised the first known model envisioning the Earth in motion, orbiting around the Sun, or "central fire," at the center of the universe. He was influenced by Philolaus, and argued, like Anaxagoras before him, that the stars were entities similar to the sun. His astronomical ideas were in large rejected in favor the prevailing geocentric models of Aristotle and Ptolemy, until De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was published in 1543 by Copernicus, who was influenced by the work of Aristarchus through a close reading of Greek and Latin authors. The only known extant work by Aristarchus is "On the Dimensions and Distances of the Sun and Moon" which does not discuss his thesis on heliocentrism.

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