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Overview of Astronomy Science

Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects such as stars, planets, galaxies and other phenomena that originate from outside Earth's atmosphere. It is one of the oldest sciences, with roots in prehistoric cultures making observations of the night sky. The invention of the telescope allowed astronomy to develop into a modern science. Today, astronomy is divided into observational and theoretical branches, with observational astronomy gathering data and theoretical astronomy developing models to explain observations. Amateur astronomers still play an active role in discoveries. Astronomy does not include astrology, which claims human affairs are correlated with celestial objects.

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73 views3 pages

Overview of Astronomy Science

Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects such as stars, planets, galaxies and other phenomena that originate from outside Earth's atmosphere. It is one of the oldest sciences, with roots in prehistoric cultures making observations of the night sky. The invention of the telescope allowed astronomy to develop into a modern science. Today, astronomy is divided into observational and theoretical branches, with observational astronomy gathering data and theoretical astronomy developing models to explain observations. Amateur astronomers still play an active role in discoveries. Astronomy does not include astrology, which claims human affairs are correlated with celestial objects.

Uploaded by

Angelo Otañes Gasatan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Astronomy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the scientific study of celestial objects. For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation).

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, an irregular galaxy.

A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant


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Astronomy is a natural science that is the study of celestial objects (such as moons, planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies), the physics, chemistry, mathematics, and evolution of such objects, and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth, including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic background radiation. A related but distinct subject, cosmology, is concerned with studying the universe as a whole.[1] Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures have left astronomical artifacts such as the Egyptian monuments and Nubian monuments, and early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.[2] During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, which is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results.

Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient phenomena. Amateur astronomers have contributed to many important astronomical discoveries. Astronomy is not to be confused with astrology, the belief system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two fields share a common origin they are now entirely distinct.[3]

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