• exocrinous@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    Hey genius, if you need experimentation in order for a field to be a real science, then explain how astronomy is a science.

    • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      7 months ago

      Isn’t one of the point of all those telescopes we built in space and on earth to prove or disprove our hypothesis regarding astronomy? Is that not experimentation?

      • exocrinous@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        No, it’s observation. An experiment involves manipulating an independent variable while controlling other variables. There’s none of that in space, not counting the ISS and Apollo. That said, you can still test hypotheses using observation. And that’s equally true in both astronomy and in social sciences.