How many years have astrophysicist been studying astrophysics?

Answer 1

Astrophysics, which incorporates the chemical and physical study of stars and other bodies in the universe can be said to have arrived in the later half of the 19 century when Joseph Fraunhofer in 1850 analyzed light from both the Sun and stars like Sirius, finding characteristic absorption lines present in the spectrum produced.

This means for the past 161 years the technology has grown to the stage where we now know that many distant stars have planets around them, and a few, theorised to be not that different to our own.

Answer 2

Astrophysics as a field of study has been around for over a century, with early advancements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the modern era of astrophysics, which integrates physics and astronomy, began in the mid-20th century.