born in modern Turkey. In his cosmogony a vortex developed in the primordial Universe, causing dense, wet, dark, and cold matter to fall inwards and form the Earth, while rarefied, dry, light, and hot matter was forced outwards. The Sun, Moon, and stars were torn from the Earth by friction. His claim that the Sun is a red-hot stone allegedly led to his prosecution for impiety and banishment from Athens. Anaxagoras seems to have known the true cause of eclipses—that they are caused by the blocking of light from the Sun.