Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws.
歴史的に、astronomy では天空で起きる現象の分類や記述に重点を置き、astroplane ではこれらの現象の説明やそれらの間の差異を物理法則を使って説明することを試みてきた。