Final answer:
Nicolaus Copernicus is responsible for first describing a heliocentric model of the solar system in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.
Step-by-step explanation:
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) is generally credited as being the first to challenge Ptolemy's geocentric system and suggest a heliocentric system, in which the Sun is at the center of the solar system. Copernicus introduced his heliocentric model in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. This idea was supported by the measurements of Tycho Brahe and the analysis of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei. Isaac Newton later connected the acceleration of objects near Earth's surface with the centripetal acceleration of the Moon in its orbit about Earth.