European Union Forums

[DavidCMilne]

Terms such as:

-Supernovae
-Black Holes
-White Dwarfs
-Wormholes

things of that nature. I want to better distinguish cosmology and astronomy, as I find myself confusing them frequently. Thanks!

[Aldarion]

Cosmology is a sub-field of astronomy, like planetary science or solar physics or galactic astrophysics. They're all astronomy and they're all physics. Cosmology refers to the universe as a whole. Supernova can be used to do cosmology, but they're also part of stellar astronomy. Black holes are produced by supernova, so they fall under cosmology, but also a few other fields. White dwarf stars are mainly observed in our own galaxy, so no, not really cosmological. And wormholes haven't been shown to exist, so they are theoretical.