Glossary
Astronomer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential astronomer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key astronomer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in astronomer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Astropy
- Python astronomy library.
- Dark matter
- Unseen mass.
- Exoplanet
- Planet outside our solar system.
- Galaxy
- System of stars.
- Grant
- Research funding.
- Hypothesis
- Testable prediction.
- Light-year
- Distance light travels in a year.
- Peer review
- Expert review of research.
- Photometry
- Measuring brightness.
- Postdoc
- Training after a Ph.D.
- Protocol
- Study procedure.
- Redshift
- Light stretched by motion.
- Replication
- Repeating results.
- Spectroscopy
- Splitting light to study it.
- Telescope proposal
- Request for observing time.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Astronomer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Astronomer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.