Library / English Dictionary

ASTRONOMER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A physicist who studies astronomy

Synonyms:

astronomer; stargazer; uranologist

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("astronomer" is a kind of...):

physicist (a scientist trained in physics)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "astronomer"):

astrophysicist (an astronomer who studies the physical properties of celestial bodies)

cosmologist (an astronomer who studies the evolution and space-time relations of the universe)

Instance hyponyms:

Gerard Kuiper; Gerard Peter Kuiper; Kuiper (United States astronomer (born in the Netherlands) who studied the solar system and suggested in 1951 that there is a belt of comet-like debris at the edge of the solar system (1905-1973))

Langley; Samuel Pierpoint Langley (United States astronomer and aviation pioneer who invented the bolometer and contributed to the design of early aircraft (1834-1906))

Laplace; Marquis de Laplace; Pierre Simon de Laplace (French mathematician and astronomer who formulated the nebular hypothesis concerning the origins of the solar system and who developed the theory of probability (1749-1827))

Lovell; Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell; Sir Bernard Lovell (English astronomer who pioneered radio astronomy (born in 1913))

Lowell; Percival Lowell (United States astronomer whose studies of Mars led him to conclude that Mars was inhabited (1855-1916))

Maria Mitchell; Mitchell (United States astronomer who studied sunspots and nebulae (1818-1889))

Johann Muller; Muller; Regiomontanus (German mathematician and astronomer (1436-1476))

Newcomb; Simon Newcomb (United States astronomer (1835-1909))

Omar Khayyam (Persian poet and mathematician and astronomer whose poetry was popularized by Edward Fitzgerald's translation (1050-1123))

Jan Hendrix Oort; Oort (Dutch astronomer who proved that the galaxy is rotating and proposed the existence of the Oort cloud (1900-1992))

Benjamin Peirce; Peirce (United States mathematician and astronomer remembered for his studies of Uranus and Saturn and Neptune (1809-1880))

Claudius Ptolemaeus; Ptolemy (Alexandrian astronomer (of the 2nd century) who proposed a geocentric system of astronomy that was undisputed until the late Renaissance)

David Rittenhouse; Rittenhouse (United States astronomer said to have built the first telescope made in America; also the first director of the United States Mint (1732-1796))

Henry Norris Russell; Henry Russell; Russell (United States astronomer who developed a theory of stellar evolution (1877-1957))

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli; Schiaparelli (Italian astronomer who first noted lines (which he called canals) on the surface of Mars (1835-1910))

Harlow Shapley; Shapley (United States astronomer (1885-1972))

Sitter; Willem de Sitter (Dutch astronomer who calculated the size of the universe and suggested that it is expanding (1872-1934))

Thales; Thales of Miletus (a presocratic Greek philosopher and astronomer (who predicted an eclipse in 585 BC) who was said by Aristotle to be the founder of physical science; he held that all things originated in water (624-546 BC))

Clyde Tombaugh; Clyde William Tombaugh; Tombaugh (United States astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto (1906-1997))

Al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham; al-Haytham; Alhacen; Alhazen; Ibn al-Haytham (an Egyptian polymath (born in Iraq) whose research in geometry and optics was influential into the 17th century; established experiments as the norm of proof in physics (died in 1040))

Anaximander (a presocratic Greek philosopher and student of Thales who believed the universal substance to be infinity rather than something resembling ordinary objects (611-547 BC))

Aristarchus of Samos (an ancient Greek astronomer who was one of the first to propose a heliocentric theory of the universe (circa 270 BC))

Bessel; Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (German mathematician and astronomer who made accurate measurements of stellar distances and who predicted the existence on an 8th planet (1784-1846))

Bowditch; Nathaniel Bowditch (United States mathematician and astronomer noted for his works on navigation (1773-1838))

Brahe; Tycho Brahe (Danish astronomer whose observations of the planets provided the basis for Kepler's laws of planetary motion (1546-1601))

Anders Celsius; Celsius (Swedish astronomer who devised the centigrade thermometer (1701-1744))

Copernicus; Mikolaj Kopernik; Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543))

Eddington; Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (English astronomer remembered for his popular elucidation of relativity theory (1882-1944))

Eratosthenes (Greek mathematician and astronomer who estimated the circumference of the earth and the distances to the Moon and sun (276-194 BC))

Galileo; Galileo Galilei (Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to use a telescope to study the stars; demonstrated that different weights descend at the same rate; perfected the refracting telescope that enabled him to make many discoveries (1564-1642))

George Ellery Hale; Hale (United States astronomer who discovered that sunspots are associated with strong magnetic fields (1868-1938))

Asaph Hall; Hall (United States astronomer who discovered Phobos and Deimos (the two satellites of Mars) (1829-1907))

Edmond Halley; Edmund Halley; Halley (English astronomer who used Newton's laws of motion to predict the period of a comet (1656-1742))

Herschel; Sir Frederick William Herschel; Sir William Herschel; William Herschel (English astronomer (born in Germany) who discovered infrared light and who catalogued the stars and discovered the planet Uranus (1738-1822))

Herschel; John Herschel; Sir John Frederick William Herschel; Sir John Herschel (English astronomer (son of William Herschel) who extended the catalogue of stars to the southern hemisphere and did pioneering work in photography (1792-1871))

Hipparchus (Greek astronomer and mathematician who discovered the precession of the equinoxes and made the first known star chart and is said to have invented trigonometry (second century BC))

Huggins; Sir William Huggins (English astronomer who pioneered spectroscopic analysis in astronomy and who discovered the red shift (1824-1910))

Hypatia (Greek philosopher and astronomer; she invented the astrolabe (370-415))

Johan Kepler; Johannes Kepler; Kepler (German astronomer who first stated laws of planetary motion (1571-1630))

Credits

 Context examples: 

Astronomers will continue collect observations to further characterize the comet's physical properties (size, rotation, etc.) and also continue to better identify its trajectory.

(Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor, NASA)

Because light from the galaxy hosting the black hole has traveled 12.5 billion years to reach us, astronomers are seeing the object as it was in the distant past.

(The Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe, NASA)

Additionally, brown dwarfs will help scientists study exoplanets, planets outside our solar system, as the atmosphere of cool brown dwarfs is similar to what astronomers expect to find at many exoplanets.

(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)

Although astronomers cannot see dark matter, they can detect its presence indirectly by measuring how its gravity affects stars and galaxies.

(Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Find Dark Matter in Small Clumps, NASA)

This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to time, give it such positions as the monarch directs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton’s intelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make any allowance for the personal equation, as the astronomers have dubbed it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Near the edge of the polar storm is a large, compact methane-ice cloud, which is sometimes bright enough to be photographed by amateur astronomers.

(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)

So looks the Shakespearean who is confronted by a rancid Baconian, or the astronomer who is assailed by a flat-earth fanatic.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Based on the observations, NGTS-1's radius is 0.573±0.077 R☉ (solar radius) and using that value, astronomers calculated its weight to be about 0.598 M☉ (solar mass).

(Astronomers report dwarf star with unexpectedly giant planet, Wikinews)

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have studied one particular explosion that may provide clues to the dynamics of other, much larger stellar eruptions.

("Mini Supernova" Explosion Could Have Big Impact, NASA)