--- title: 1 in 4 Americans Think Sun Revolves Around Earth: Study description: A National Science Foundation study involving 2,200 participants find that about 25 percent of Americans got this question wrong: 'Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?' canonical: https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-16T21:59:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:11.682Z og:title: 1 in 4 Americans Think Sun Revolves Around Earth: Study og:description: A National Science Foundation study involving 2,200 participants find that about 25 percent of Americans got this question wrong: 'Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?' og:url: https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd669e917b60a4602/69868297169ab0653c277f16/sun.jpg?branch=production&width=1070&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1070 og:image:height: 602 og:image:alt: This 19 August, 2004 NASA Solar and Heli og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 1 in 4 Americans Think Sun Revolves Around Earth: Study twitter:description: A National Science Foundation study involving 2,200 participants find that about 25 percent of Americans got this question wrong: 'Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd669e917b60a4602/69868297169ab0653c277f16/sun.jpg?branch=production&width=1070&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 1 in 4 Americans Apparently Unaware the Earth Orbits the Sun > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=eeae1dac-9e8b-4c45-956f-08508a512964&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 16, 2014 9:59 PM UTC  SPACE, SPACE: This 19 August, 2004 NASA Solar and Heliospheric Administration (SOHO) image shows a solar flare(R) erupting from giant sunspot 649\. The powerful explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection(CME) into space, but it was directed toward Earth. AFP PHOTO/NASA (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images) SPACE, SPACE: This 19 August, 2004 NASA Solar and Heliospheric Administration (SOHO) image shows a solar flare(R) erupting from giant sunspot 649\. The powerful explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection(CME) into space, but it was directed toward Earth. AFP PHOTO/NASA (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images) Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 16, 2014 9:59 PM UTC _Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?_ When asked that question, 1 in 4 Americans surveyed answered incorrectly. Yes, 1 in 4\. In other words, a quarter of Americans do not understand one of the most fundamental principles of basic science. So that’s where we are as a society right now. The survey, conducted by the National Science Foundation, included more than 2,200 participants in the U.S., AFP [reports](http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jazBjrI8ZFm0e4fMwCtO%5F2WEbI3w?docId=a31a943f-befb-4a3d-8de7-cce861b955fd). It featured a nine-question quiz about physical and biological science and the average score was a 6.5. And the fact that only 74 percent of participants knew that the Earth revolved around the sun is perhaps less alarming than the fact that only 48 percent knew that humans evolved from earlier species of animals. Here’s the thing, though: Americans actually fared better than Europeans who took similar quizzes — at least when it came to the sun and Earth question. Only 66 percent of European Union residents answered that one correctly. We won’t know the full results of the survey—or its methodology—until the National Science Foundation delivers its report to President Obama and U.S. lawmakers. But on this evidence we may end up getting a new national holiday out of this: Spread the Word That the Earth Revolves Around the Sun Day. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/"},"headline":"1 in 4 Americans Apparently Unaware the Earth Orbits the Sun","datePublished":"2014-02-16T21:59:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:11.682Z","description":"A National Science Foundation study involving 2,200 participants find that about 25 percent of Americans got this question wrong: 'Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?'","url":"https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/","keywords":["Newsfeed","survey","Science topic","earth","orbit","sun"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd669e917b60a4602/69868297169ab0653c277f16/sun.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd669e917b60a4602/69868297169ab0653c277f16/sun.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"This 19 August, 2004 NASA Solar and Heli","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/","name":"1 in 4 Americans Apparently Unaware the Earth Orbits the Sun"}}]}] ```