 Skip Navigation  2.7: Revolutions of Earth  Difficulty Level:
Basic Created by: CK-12 Atoms Practice Practice Revolutions of
Earth Practice Now  What kind of revolution are we talking
about?  Copernicus caused a revolution. He said that Earth
revolved around the Sun. With his telescope, Galileo found a lot
of evidence for this. He could see moons orbiting Jupiter. If
moons can orbit Jupiter, surely Earth can orbit the Sun. Yes? In
the two images above, you can see Jupiter at two different
times, showing moons in different places.  Earth's Revolution
Earth orbits a star. That star is our Sun. One revolution around
the Sun takes 365.24 days. That is equal to one year. Earth
stays in orbit around the Sun because of the Sun's gravity (
Figure below ).  Earth's orbit is not a circle. It is a bit
elliptical. So as we travel around the Sun, sometimes we are a
little farther away from the Sun. Sometimes we are closer to the
Sun.   Earth and the other planets in the solar system make
elliptical orbits around the Sun