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In my university, the department for astronomy and astrophysics are distinct. I want to know what's basically the difference between the two fields?

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    $\begingroup$ maybe best suited for astronomy.stackexchange.com ? $\endgroup$
    – glS
    Dec 11, 2014 at 9:31
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    $\begingroup$ Although these questions are off-topic, but check this physics.stackexchange.com/q/148203. $\endgroup$
    – MEDVIS
    Dec 11, 2014 at 9:44
  • $\begingroup$ See also the tag wikis for astronomy and astrophysics. (I personally edited much of that info in, but I think they do a fair job of representing the field's opinions. But really the terms are often interchangeable.) $\endgroup$
    – user10851
    Dec 12, 2014 at 14:19

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Astronomy is mostly concerned with observing the night sky, calculating the positions and movements of the heavenly bodies and identifying objects.

Astrophysics is concerned with figuring out how stars form, studying the chemical reactions within the stars, calculating what elements the stars contain and so on.

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