19thcenturyObservatorySydney,

Australia(1873)
3.3Opticalastronomy
3.4Ultravioletastronomy
3.5Xrayastronomy
3.6Gammarayastronomy
3.7Fieldsnotbasedontheelectromagneticspectrum
3.8Astrometryandcelestialmechanics
4Theoreticalastronomy
5Specificsubfields
5.1Solarastronomy
5.2Planetaryscience
5.3Stellarastronomy
5.4Galacticastronomy
5.5Extragalacticastronomy
5.6Cosmology
6Interdisciplinarystudies
7Amateurastronomy
8Unsolvedproblemsinastronomy
9Seealso
10References
11Bibliography
12Externallinks
Astronomy(fromtheGreekwordsastron(),"star"and
nomiafromnomos(),"law"or"culture")means"lawofthe
stars"(or"cultureofthestars"dependingonthetranslation).
Astronomyshouldnotbeconfusedwithastrology,thebelief
systemwhichclaimsthathumanaffairsarecorrelatedwiththe
positionsofcelestialobjects.
[3]
Althoughthetwofieldssharea
commonorigintheyarenowentirelydistinct.
[4]
Useofterms"astronomy"and"astrophysics"
Generally,eithertheterm"astronomy"or"astrophysics"maybe
usedtorefertothissubject.
[5][6][7]
Basedonstrictdictionary
definitions,"astronomy"refersto"thestudyofobjectsandmatter
outsidetheEarth'satmosphereandoftheirphysicaland
chemicalproperties"
[8]
and"astrophysics"referstothebranchofastronomydealingwith"the
behavior,physicalproperties,anddynamicprocessesofcelestialobjectsandphenomena".
[9]
Insome
cases,asintheintroductionoftheintroductorytextbookThePhysicalUniversebyFrankShu,
"astronomy"maybeusedtodescribethequalitativestudyofthesubject,whereas"astrophysics"is
usedtodescribethephysicsorientedversionofthesubject.
[10]
However,sincemostmodern
astronomicalresearchdealswithsubjectsrelatedtophysics,modernastronomycouldactuallybe
AstronomyWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy
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