Space Science
Space science is an all-encompassing term that describes most all of the various science fields that are concerned with the study of the Universe, generally also meaning "excluding the Earth" and "outside of the Earth's atmosphere".
Originally, all of these fields were considered part of astronomy. However, in recent years the major sub-fields within astronomy, such as astrophysics, have grown so large that they are now considered separate fields on their own.
There are eight overall categories of astronomy that can generally be described as space sciences on their own:
- Astrophysics
- Galactic Science
- Stellar Science
- non-Earth Planetary Science
- Biology of Other Planets
- Astronautics / Space Travel
- Space Colonization
- Space Defense
Astronomical Methods
Astronomical methods are the equipment and techniques used to collect data about the objects in Space.
- Radio astronomy - includes radio telescopes; devices that receive and record radio waves from outside the Earth. They record cosmic microwave background radiation resulting from the Big Bang, Pulsars and other sources.
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- Space telescope - is a telescope orbiting or travelling from the Earth, such as the Hubble space telescope.
- RXTE is an abbreviation for "Long Exposure Time Astronomy" - used to study millisecond pulsars and pulsar deceleration.
- Spectroscopy -
- Astronomy teaching tools - include Planetariums and others.
Descriptive Astronomy
Descriptive Astronomy is the highest sub-category of Astronomy used by the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal systems to classify any knowledge related to describing celestial objects. Because we are seeing today portions of the Universe as they actually looked millions or billions of years ago we should have a historical section within Descriptive astronomy.
History of The Universe includes the size, shape and structure of the historical universe), Cartography of The Historical Universe, Early Universe and others.
Cartography of Space Bodies
Recording photograhic or similar images of the Earths surface from space is a well developed science, yet still expanding because of advances in the actual resolution of images taken from space or atmosphere and because of advances in digitizing and manipulating the images.
Most of these advances are being applied to the cartography of space-located bodies, even though acquiring the original images of those bodies is extremely complicated and expensive, usually requiring long distance probes to carry the cameras.
Visible matter in the universe is apparently organized geographically into structures with large amounts of space between them; either the space between planets, the space between stars or the space between galaxies. Even galaxies themselves are not spread uniformly but appear to be located in filaments. Therefore The Universe can be divided geographically into regions that follow this structure.
Superclusters
The Filaments of Galaxies are the furthest visible structures.
Those filaments are made of superclusters, tending to line up in filaments. Our Milky Way Galaxy is a galaxy in what is called the Our Supercluster of Galaxies by the National Geographic Society. Some 150 million light-years across, Our Supercluster is a great aggregation of perhaps thousands of smaller clusters of galaxies. The largest of these smaller clusters is called the Virgo Cluster. According to National Geographic, The Virgo Cluster contains the center of mass of Our Supercluster. Although the The Milky Way Galaxy is a part of Our Supercluster, it is not a part of the Virgo Cluster. Our Milky Way Galaxy is part of a cluster called the Local Group. Gravitationally, our Local Group plays a small role in Our Supercluster because it is a small and distant cluster from the center. A much larger cluster within in Our Supercluster is the Ursa Major Cluster.
Physics Of The Universe / Astrophysics
Astrophysical Theory includes general relativity and others. Astrophysical Processes includes baryonic and others. Physical Processes, General includes Mechanics, Electromagnetism, electromagnetic forces, Statistical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, relativity, gravity and others. Origins Of The Universe Universe Theories of the Origins of the Universe, Big Bang Theory, Early Universe, Evidence, Cosmic Microwave Background, Dark Ages, Interstellar Medium , voids, Filaments of Galaxies , galaxy clusters and others. Astrophysical Plasma includes plasma and quasineutrality and others. Cosmic Plasmas Between Stars, (Diffuse Plasmas) includes intergalactic space, intergalactic medium, interstellar medium, interplanetary medium, interstellar space, heliospheric current sheet, interplanetary medium, Solar wind and others. Cosmic Plasmas Inside Stars, (Dense Plasma) includes Stars, plasma physicists, active galactic nuclei, fusion power, magnetohydrodynamic, X-rays , bremsstrahlung, Cosmology , reionized, ambipolar diffusion, Particle Physics and others
Cosmology
Physics can explain the underlying physical science of any galaxy, yet many aspects of galaxies are not best described through their physics. Galactic physical science is the general term for all physical sciences that can be applied to any galaxy in the Universe or to a particular galaxy. Galaxy Formation and Evolution includes Galaxies, elliptical galaxies Giant Galaxies, Spiral Galaxies, M31 The Andromeda Galaxy and others. Intra-Galaxy Processes, General includes Black Hole, Globular Clusters, Satellite Galaxy, Retrograde Rotation, Halo stars, High Velocity Clouds, Monoceros Ring, accretion disc, Gravitation, Angular Momentum, Centripetal force, tidal effects, Viscosity, orbital momentum, Accretion disk, Active galactic nuclei, Protoplanetary discs, Gamma ray bursts and others. Milky Way Galactic Physical Science is the overall science containing all the physical sciences related directly to the Milky Way Galaxy: Halo stars, Milky Way High Velocity Clouds, Milky Way Monoceros Ring, Milky Way accretion disc, Milky Way Gravitation, Milky Way Angular Momentum, Milky Way Centripetal force, Milky Way tidal effects, Milky Way Viscosity, Milky Way orbital momentum, Milky Way event horizon, Milky Way black hole and others.
Stellar science
Non-Earth Planetary Science
Exobiology / Extraterrestrial Life
Space Travel
Space Colonization
Space Defense
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