Requesting help from scientists/astronomers on the forum.

[possibletarian]

On one of the Christian forums I frequent, I have gotten into a debate with a flat earther. I refuse to debate a conspiracy theory, but I have challenged his assertion that "astronomy is not a science because you cannot manipulate/experiment with the observed objects." To him, astronomy as a scientific endeavor cannot proceed beyond the "hypothesis" phase, and thus cannot be described as a real science.

Astronomers do experiments, searching for planets around distant stars. Finally, most individual experiments address highly specific topics for reasons of practicality. As a result, evidence about broader topics is usually accumulated gradually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Process

I have referenced several sources (like the one above) that name astronomy as a science and show how it conforms to scientific method abstractly. What I would like is help finding one or two practical examples of the "experimentation" process as it exists in astronomy.

Thanks.

Not sure exactly what you are looking for, but i was watching a documentary on the voyager missions and how they worked out the slingshot method to catapult them to planets they wanted them to observe. The mathematics involved was impressive and had it been wrong they of course would not have made it. Effectively they were experimental missions that worked.

They applied the math to the observations they had already made of orbits, so they would know exactly where the planets would be etc. It may be worth looking into things like that.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/acro...uk-science

^just an interesting article i was reading

Also worth mentioning is the study of planets in other solar systems (as a flat earther not sure he believes they exist) he may eventually have to resort to ''it's the devil making these things happen'' or something !!