Final answer:
The Copernican heliocentric model was the first to propose the sun as the center of the solar system, marking a significant shift from the Earth-centered Ptolemaic model.
Step-by-step explanation:
The model of the solar system that first proposed the sun as the center is Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model. Contrary to the Ptolemaic view, which placed Earth at the center, the Copernican model revolutionized our understanding by positioning the Sun at the core of the solar system. The acceptance of Copernicus' model was further supported by subsequent observations and analyses by Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei. Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Newton's universal law of gravitation provided the physics to explain the heliocentric system, with planets orbiting in ellipses rather than circular paths.