Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
Plato
Space, with its vastness and complexity, captivates us through its solar systems, galaxies, stars, and planets. Among the key fields making up the space industry are astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Astronomy relies on observational methods to evaluate celestial objects, astrophysics is all about the physics governing space, and cosmology studies the origins and creation of the universe. While these disciplines often overlap and inform each other, they each have distinct focuses. Understanding these differences is essential for any space enthusiast.
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What Is Astronomy?
This is probably the broadest of the disciplines, as in many ways, it is the umbrella term that includes the others. Astrophysics is fundamentally astronomical, while cosmology combines astronomical knowledge of our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe with philosophy.
History of Astronomy
Astronomy is ancient. There is evidence that it has been practiced for as long as humans have been alive because you don’t need a massive space telescope to be an astronomer, nor do you need one to observe the Milky Way, celestial objects like comets and asteroids, and planetary systems and their orbits.
These are the things that are the object of an astronomer’s study. The methodology of observation is still the method that astronomers use – just in a much more sophisticated way.
The Ancient Greeks were excellent at astronomy. Aristarchus of Samos, back in the third century BC, for example, had already worked out that the Earth travels around the Sun – something that scientists didn’t confirm until the seventeenth century. Meanwhile, Eratosthenes used shadows to measure the size of the Earth – something he did with incredible accuracy.
And while we all know about the Greeks, the oldest calendar we know has been found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Known as the Warren Field calendar, it is made of twelve pits that correlate to the phases of the moon.
The Warren Field calendar is thought to be ten thousand years old.
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Astronomy Today
In this sense, any investigation into the planets and universe – including stargazing and any studies that are ground-based – counts as astronomy.
These days, we just have better instruments with which to conduct such investigations. We are continuing to discover new planets, stars, and even galaxies. For example, the Voyager 1 became, in 2013, the first shuttle to pass Neptune and journey off into the interstellar medium beyond our solar system.
Pluto was the last planet discovered in 1930, but since 2006, it has been classified as a dwarf planet.
Learn about our Solar System!
What Is Cosmology?
So, where does that leave cosmology? If astronomy focuses on describing the positions and movements of space, and astrophysics on explaining its nature, what can be properly described as the cosmological?
NASA describes cosmology as the study of the ‘large scale properties of the universe as a whole’ – as opposed to astronomy that looks specifically at the objects in space.
However, this definition does not really give a full sense of everything that cosmology is and has been because cosmology has often overlapped with and been propelled by speculations in philosophy and metaphysics too – about the nature of the universe and its origins.
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Cosmology Throughout the Ages.
The earliest philosophers, religions, and thinkers all proposed their own image of the universe – their own cosmology.
Take that which is known as the Hindu cosmology, which was proposed in the second millennium BC. It was believed here that the universe was infinite and cyclical, and that each world or cosmos would last eight billion years. Meanwhile, the cosmology of Ptolemy, the Greek thinker, described a universe with the Earth at the middle.
Science and Physical Cosmology.
Yet, with the scientific epistemology that developed in the west over the last five hundred years, the metaphysical nature of cosmology has decreased.
Cosmology these days is more concerned with testing hypotheses regarding the origin, development, and future of the universe. Fairly predictably, one of its major concerns is the Big Bang – as well as the expansion of the universe and the nature of the early universe.
Given that, these days, cosmology is a science, it takes its data from astronomy and from astrophysics – as it needs observed material upon which to base its hypotheses.
Is there life on other planets?
What Is Astrophysics?
We’ve seen that astronomy is the broadest discipline when it comes to studies of space. Astrophysics is a subdiscipline of astronomy, essentially, which combines – you’ve guessed it – physics and astronomy.
If astronomy maps the positions and movements of astronomical objects, astrophysics uses the laws of physics to describe and explain their nature.
Using Physics to Understand Space
Physics is concerned with:
- Atomic and Molecular Physics
- Nuclear Behavior
- Quantum Physics
- Relativity
- Thermodynamics
Sure, these are all things that are relevant to the Earth and that were developed through study and knowledge of the nature of the Earth and its physical properties. But space offers a larger arena in which to study them – as well as a whole lot of other things.
By looking at black holes, we push our knowledge of gravity further. By looking at dark matter and dark energy, we need to apply our knowledge of subatomic particles and particle physics. For a deeper understanding, you might consider resources like physics tutors near me.
But there is so much that we don’t understand about space that astrophysics is often highly theoretical. Dark matter in itself, while quite famous as a phenomenon, is entirely speculative: we have not found any evidence that it exists.
The History of Astrophysics
While astronomy has been around since the beginning of human civilization, this is not quite true of astrophysics.
This discipline was only named as such in the mid-nineteenth century, when Joseph von Fraunhofer began to use spectroscopy – the study of spectra – to draw conclusions about the material nature of stars.
Since then, the study of astrophysics has become increasingly distinct from astronomy, with the majority of new discoveries about space occurring in astrophysics.
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What Are the Main Differences Between Cosmology, Astronomy, and Astrophysics?
The three major disciplines that involve the study of space are astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. And, as we said, while they are profoundly symbiotic – in the sense that a cosmologist couldn’t do her job without the data provided by an astrophysicist – the differences between the three disciplines are important. Here's a closer look at the difference between astrophysics vs cosmology vs astronomy.
- Cosmologists: Study the origins and development of the universe
- Astronomers: Employ observational methods to evaluate and classify celestial objects, but their scope encompasses the broader study of space.
- Astrophysics: Focuses on the physics governing space, blending principles from both physics and astronomy to delve deeper into our understanding of the universe
Someone studying space does not limit themselves to one of these three disciplines. Rather, cosmology, astrophysics, and astronomy are what people do, rather than being something that they are.
Let's take a further look at how these disciplines differ from one another.
Cosmology vs. Astronomy
Astronomy focuses on the study of objects and events beyond Earth, while cosmology is a specialized field within astronomy that examines the universe's origin and development. Topics such as the Big Bang, the formation of chemical elements, and the cosmic microwave background are central to cosmology.
- More theoretical than observational astronomy
- Has elements of physics and philosophy
- All about how it all began and where it's going
- Uses observational techniques, like telescopes and spectroscopy
- Might include planetary science, stellar evolution, and galactic dynamics
- All about what's "out there"
Check out some of the most important discoveries in astronomy.
Astronomy vs Astrophysics
Astronomy primarily delves into the realm of space, with astronomers often specializing in specific cosmic domains like planets, stars, or moons. Their overarching curiosity extends to the vast expanse of the universe itself. On the other hand, astrophysicists concentrate exclusively on the physics governing space and the intricate interplay between its various components.
- Umbrella term that encompasses various fields of study
- Observational and empirical
- Focuses on defining the what and why
- Uses physics and math to understand the celestial
- Theoretical and quantitative
- Focuses on how things work
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Good analysis explaining differences of the three+how they relate.
Not expecting your reply. Best wishes
A very good presentation. Educative, informative. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the comment, Mathew! 😊
Yes being that astronomy and cosmology are two different things the only favorite things that I can think of is cosmology for a fact that it’s bigger and explores more planets and planetary travel in space travel as it has been done by very many astronauts in the past and supposed to be even more extra solar plans to be traveled and discovered later on.