АСТРОНОМИЯ

Astronomy

The science of the position, motion, structure and development of celestial bodies and their systems, and other forms of cosmic matter. Astronomy is divided into a number of disciplines, each of which is again subdivided. Astrometry, for instance, includes spherical, geodesic, navigational, and other branches of practical astronomy and deals with the problems of measuring the positions and sizes of celestial bodies. Astral astronomy studies the laws of the spatial distribution and motion of stars and their systems. Radio astronomy, which has developed since the Second World War, studies various cosmic objects by observing the radio waves they emanate. Astrophysics studies, among other things, the physical properties of cosmic matter (bodies, dust, gas) and fields; cosmogony studies problems connected with their origin and development and cosmology studies the general laws of the structure of the Universe as a single connected whole, as an all-embracing system of cosmic systems.

Astronomy extends to a tremendous degree in time and space the experimental field in natural science and human knowledge in general. Thanks to astronomy the human mind is able to penetrate billions of light years into outer space and hundreds and thousands of millions of years in time into the past and the future. Astronomy's objects are gigantic natural physical laboratories where the most varied processes are under way, processes that cannot yet be reproduced under terrestrial conditions, or, if they can, only on a tiny scale. Thermonuclear reactions, for instance, were first discovered in the stars and later reproduced on Earth (so far only as uncontrolled explosions); particles in cosmic rays have energies that are not yet attainable in the most powerful accelerators; in space, too, we can observe matter in a state of super density or extreme rarefaction, gravitational and electromagnetic fields of enormous extent and power, explosions and blasts on a terrific scale, etc.

Astronomy extends the experimental field of physics into boundless space, but itself relies first and foremost on physical science and its means and methods. Until quite recently astronomers were almost completely confined to observation and could not mount experiments. Since 1957, however, when the USSR launched the first artificial Earth satellite and paved the way for space exploration, the situation has changed. Extra-terrestrial observation (measurements in interplanetary space, photographing of the reverse side of the Moon, etc.), and even visits to other celestial bodies and the mounting of experiments there have become possible.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences and more than any other natural science has served to elaborate and spread correct, materialist views of nature. Since it deals with heavenly bodies, astronomy has not infrequently been treated with suspicion by the church and churchmen and has met with their savage counteractions, which went so far as to attempt, by torture and death at the stake, to check the cognition of the Universe. The clerics and their idealist supporters are today forced to take into consideration the great authority of natural science; they still try to distort the data of astronomy to adapt them to justify religion.

«Астрономия»

Реферативный журнал Всесоюзного института научной и технической информации АН СССР. Издается в Москве с 1963 (в 1953-62 издавался реферативный журнал «Астрономия и геодезия»); 12 выпусков в год. Публикует рефераты, аннотации или библиографические описания статей и книг по астрономии, печатающихся в СССР и за рубежом. Каждый номер содержит около 650 публикаций и авторский указатель. Ежегодно отдельными номерами публикуются авторский и предметный указатели.