ASTRONOMER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does astronomer mean? 

• ASTRONOMER (noun)
  The noun ASTRONOMER has 1 sense:

1. a physicist who studies astronomy

  Familiarity information: ASTRONOMER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTRONOMER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A physicist who studies astronomy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

astronomer; stargazer; uranologist

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"):

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

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

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))

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

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))

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

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))

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

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))

 Context examples 

An international team of astronomers discovered an exoplanet, called NGTS-1b, revolving around M-dwarf star NGTS-1, that the team said does not fit existing notions of how stars and planets form.

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

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a vast, complex dust structure, about 150 billion miles across, enveloping the young star HR 4796A.

(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)

This 13-year baseline provides astronomers with enough time to notice important differences in the X-ray emission and its properties.

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

Almost as if somebody had shone a flashlight for the astronomers, the shifting corona lit up the precise region they wanted to study.

(NuSTAR sees rare blurring of black hole light, NASA)

If so, it would be the first "interstellar object" to be observed and confirmed by astronomers.

(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)

Astronomers have been hunting for phosphorus in the universe because of the role it plays in life on Earth.

(Finding Alien Life Unlikely Due to Lack of Phosphorus in Universe, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Astronomers have now traced the journey of phosphorus from star-forming regions to comets using the combined powers of ALMA and the European Space Agency’s probe Rosetta.

(Astronomers Reveal Interstellar Thread of One of Life’s Building Blocks, ESO)

In partnership with an international team, a group of Brazilian astronomers discovered the existence of a ring around a dwarf planet near Pluto, similar to those of the giant Saturn.

(Brazil astronomers discover ring around dwarf planet near Pluto, Agência Brasil)

Planetary astronomers hope to better understand how dark vortices originate, what controls their drifts and oscillations, how they interact with the environment, and how they eventually dissipate.

(Hubble Imagery Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune, NASA)

From its reflected brightness, astronomers estimate that the asteroid is about a third of a mile (0.5 kilometers) in size.

(Asteroid to Fly By Earth on January 26, NASA)