Why is astronomy a scientific pursuit?

Answer 1

Science is the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

Astronomy (often in conjunction with physics) was initially concerned about the movement of stars and planets: observing and recording their movement, analysing these, proposing hypotheses (for example geocentric or heliocentric theories), testing these and then predicting the motion of astronomical objects.

More recently, there have been major developments in cosmology which try to explain the origins of the universe (or multiverses), from the Big Bang onwards.