Astronomy is the discipline that deals with the study of the celestial bodies, also known as stars, their positions, movements and everything that exists related to them.
Discipline that studies the stars
It is a discipline that has existed since ancient times, since the human being set foot on the planet. It has always been a special interest that man has had in knowing everything that concerns the stars.
He feels a deep fascination and amazement for them and an example of this has been that since the most ancient times of humanity he has been busy developing elements that would allow him to study them and advance more and more in his knowledge every day.
A fanatical and ancient interest that of the human being for the knowledge of the universe
The celestial bodies or astronomical objects is any significant physical entity that is confirmed through science that exists as such in the universe, such as: the sun, planets, moon, asteroids, meteoroids, among others.
Meanwhile, we will have an idea of its existence and data on its characteristics and origin from the information provided by electromagnetic radiation or any other appropriate means.
The mission of astronomy is to describe the various laws that govern the universe and that of course are decisive when it comes to controlling its occurrence and movement.
Advances through time
Although astronomy is a modern science, it has had an important relationship with humans since time immemorial; in some way or another, since ancient times, all civilizations have had some kind of contact with this science. Aristotle, Thales of Miletus, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Isaac NewtonAmong others, there have been several of the great thinkers who were in charge of promoting and elevating it, each one in the historical moment in which he had to act.
The antecedent of astronomy was the Cosmogony, which was a branch within the ancient religions that tried to explain the origin of the universe, especially linking it to the mythological elements so abundant and important at that time.
In the beginnings of humanity, astronomy was reduced to the observation and predictions of the movements of objects visible to the naked eye, having nothing to do with Physics.
Greek culture was undoubtedly the first to make great contributions to the matter, such as: the definition of magnitude. For its part, pre-Columbian astronomy had super exact calendars.
Between the ages XVI and XVII There were great advances in the subject and astronomy, little by little, would begin to approach physics to bring us great and important news.
The incorporation of telescope by Galileo Galilei It brought an unmatched precision in the observations and also raised new questions that progressively were finding answers.
Among the various questions that astronomers were discovering, the one discovered about 400 years ago stands out, which indicates that the planet Earth orbits around the Sun, one of the greatest stars.
Meanwhile, Copernicus, would be remembered forever and praised in Astronomy for his contribution that points out that the center of the universe is not on earth but rather the sun is the true center of it.
The aforementioned theory is called heliocentrism and the astronomical knowledge that succeeded it was developed on it.
In the seventeenth century, Galileo advanced on a relevant issue, the determination of the lunar phases, the movements of the planets, the principle of gravity, which is the force that governs movement in our universe.
It would be from this moment on that astronomy would reach a fantastic development and would add related disciplines to continue advancing in knowledge. For example, astronomy would diversify into branches.
Diversification in the study of topics
Theoretical astronomy that deals with describing the mathematical structures present in processes that occur in the cosmos, such as the formation of galaxies, the evolution of stars, and relativity. It is also concerned with finding answers to some questions that still remain unanswered, such as the issue of life on other planets, if it really exists, if there are more worlds, among the most common.
For its part, astrophysics studies the relationship between laws and the stars.
The telescope is an optical instrument in the shape of a tube that allows the appreciation of objects that are very far away and since its invention it has been the unconditional ally of astronomy with whom it has formed a partnership that produced many novelties.
Towards the end of the century XIX It was learned that when decomposing the sunlight, a multitude of spectrum lines can be observed and more recently, in the century XX, the existence of the Milky Way and a variety of unexpected exotic objects were discovered: black holes, neutron stars and radio galaxies.
It should be noted that although astronomy is indeed a science in which the professionals dedicated to its study and research, the astronomers, strictly follow the scientific method to study it, it also accepts the participation of the so-called amateurs, assigning them a determining role, especially with regard to the discovery and monitoring of the evolution of phenomena such as variable starlight curves, asteroids, comets, among others.
