{"dataset":{"slug":"method-categories","title":"Astronomy Method Categories","description":"The families of astronomical technique — astrometry, photometry, spectroscopy, the distance ladder, exoplanet detection, and more.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":8,"sources":["nasa"]},"entities":[{"id":"method_category:astrometry-and-motion","name":"Astrometry & Motion","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"Measuring the precise positions and motions of the stars — parallax, proper motion, and the space astrometry that has mapped over a billion stars. The foundation on which distances across the galaxy are built.","entryPath":"/methods/astrometry-and-motion"},{"id":"method_category:exoplanet-detection","name":"Exoplanet Detection","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"The techniques that find and weigh planets around other stars — from the tiny dimming of a transit to the wobble of radial velocity — most of them modelled already in the exoplanet encyclopedia.","entryPath":"/methods/exoplanet-detection"},{"id":"method_category:gravitation-and-multi-messenger","name":"Gravitation & Multi-Messenger","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"Astronomy beyond light — the bending of light by gravity, the direct detection of gravitational waves and cosmic neutrinos, and the combined multi-messenger view of the most violent events.","entryPath":"/methods/gravitation-and-multi-messenger"},{"id":"method_category:measurement-data-and-statistics","name":"Measurement, Data & Statistics","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"How raw measurements become knowledge — deriving the properties of stars and galaxies, weighing black holes, mapping dark matter through rotation curves, and the calibration, error analysis, and honest uncertainty that make a measurement science.","entryPath":"/methods/measurement-data-and-statistics"},{"id":"method_category:photometry-and-imaging","name":"Photometry & Imaging","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"Measuring how bright things are and resolving their fine detail — the magnitude system, precision photometry, and the interferometry and adaptive optics that sharpen the view.","entryPath":"/methods/photometry-and-imaging"},{"id":"method_category:spectroscopy-and-classification","name":"Spectroscopy & Classification","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"Splitting light into its spectrum to read the composition, temperature, motion, and magnetic fields of distant objects — and classifying stars by what their spectra reveal.","entryPath":"/methods/spectroscopy-and-classification"},{"id":"method_category:the-cosmic-distance-ladder","name":"The Cosmic Distance Ladder","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"How astronomers measure distances across the universe — a ladder from parallax to standard candles to redshift, each rung calibrating the next, reaching from nearby stars to the edge of the observable universe.","entryPath":"/methods/the-cosmic-distance-ladder"},{"id":"method_category:time-domain-and-seismology","name":"Time-Domain & Seismology","type":"method_category","domain":"science","description":"Watching how things change with time — the oscillations that let us sound the interiors of the Sun and stars, the occultations that reveal sizes, and the study of the variable and transient sky.","entryPath":"/methods/time-domain-and-seismology"}]}