Astronomy is the study of the laws of stars, not of their names, regardless of how close "nomy" sounds to "name". https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy h

Astronomy is the study of the laws of stars, not of their names, regardless of how close "nomy" sounds to "name". https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy Additionally Sagan was most certainly conflating it with astrophysics, as is commonly done, and evidenced by his mention of "stellar evolutionary events".