Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy .
The first documented records of systematic astronomical observations date back to the Assyro-Babylonians around 1000 BCE.
From this cradle of civilisation in Mesopotamia – in the southern part of present-day Iraq – astronomers had built up knowledge of the celestial bodies and recorded their periodic motions..
A scientist who studies the objects in the sky, including planets, galaxies, black holes, and stars, is called an astronomer.
These days, the terms astronomer and astrophysicist are used interchangeably, to talk about any physicist who specializes in celestial bodies and the forces that affect them..
Astronomy is the study of everything in the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere.
That includes objects we can see with our naked eyes, like the Sun , the Moon , the planets, and the stars .
It also includes objects we can only see with telescopes or other instruments, like faraway galaxies and tiny particles..
Examples of space words include Earth, solar system, asteroid, astronaut, galaxy, and moon..
In current use, astronomy is concerned with “the study of objects and matter outside the earth's atmosphere,” while astrology is the purported divination of how stars and planets influence our lives.
Put bluntly, astronomy is a science, and astrology is not..
Celestial bodies or heavenly bodies refer to the planets, stars, moons and all the other natural objects present in space..
Sun glossary: S
Solar atmosphere: The sun's atmosphere is made up of three layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona.
Solar cycle: The sun reaches a peak – or maximum – in activity (sunspots, coronal mass ejections, solar flares) on an average of every 11 years..
Astronomical and technical terms used frequently in astronomy and space exploration can be difficult to understand like 'celestial pole' or 'constellation' or 'orbital plane'. Oct 14 Sign in News Astronomy News Time Zone News Calendar & Holiday News Newsletter Live events World Clock Main World Clock Extended World Clock Personal World Clock
Read more... Star A celestial body that produces light and other forms of energy through a process of nuclear fusion. Our home star is the Sun. Summer Solstice The summer solstice is the longest day of the year.
