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Most things astronomers observe do not change much over the course of 6 months. For comparison, it takes the Sun about 200 million years to orbit around the cen
by DiogenesKynikos 2y ago
Most things astronomers observe do not change much over the course of 6 months. For comparison, it takes the Sun about 200 million years to orbit around the center of the Milky Way once, so a galaxy like the Milky Way would hardly change in 6 months.
However, there is an entire field of astronomy, called "time-domain astronomy," that deals with things that do change on human timescales. There are pulsating stars, supernovae, galaxies with rapidly accreting central black holes, and many other types of objects. Surveys that focus on the "time domain" have survey strategies that are tailored to whatever type of object they're looking at. For example, if you're looking for planets that transit in front of their host stars, you should look every ~30 minutes or so, because planet transits only last around that amount of time.