Astrophysics as A Career
If you dream of studying the stars, know that becoming an astrophysicist requires years of observation, training and work. But you can start at whatever age by doing things like joining an astronomy club, attending local astronomy events, taking free online courses in astronomy and astrophysics and keeping up with news in the field (you can even do.
Astrophysics at NASA
Astrophysicists seek to understand the universe and our place in it. At NASA, the aims of its astrophysics work are "to discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars," according to NASA's website. NASA states that its astrophysics work grapples with three main questions:
It Began with Isaac Newton
While astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, theoretical astrophysics began with Isaac Newton. Prior to Newton, astronomers described the motions of "heavenly bodies," as they were then called, using complex mathematical models without a physical basis. Newton showed that a single theory, describing what we now know as gravity, simultaneously exp.
Milestones in Astrophysics
We can't directly interact with distant cosmic objects, but we can observe the radiation they emit, and much of astrophysics has to do with studying this radiation and working to explain the mechanisms behind it. The first ideas about the nature of stars emerged in the mid-19th century from the blossoming science of spectral analysis, an essential .
