Money · 1 of 5
What astronomers make
Typical
$128,820
Postdoctoral researcher
$78,010
Senior or tenured
$195,190
The national median is $128,820 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $78,010. Those figures count people already employed as astronomers, which mostly means university faculty, national observatory staff and federal researchers. They do not count the much larger group of doctorate holders who tried and moved into another field.