heliocentric system

A model of the Solar System or of the Universe that has the Sun at its center. Aristarchus of Samos proposed a heliocentric system in the third century bc in which the planets moved at uniform rates around the Sun in circular orbits. The theory was abandoned due to large discrepancies between prediction and observation, and the geocentric Ptolemaic system was subsequently favored until the establishment of the heliocentric Copernican system.

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