A lot of the chemists and geologists and biologists working in astrobiology are fixated on the details, because the history of life and the Earth is really just a catalogue of historical accidents.
Within a century of Comte's death, thanks to the invention of the spectroscope, much of astronomy had become astrochemistry - a science he had roundly declared impossible.
In this way, astronomers will perform very precise astrometry to detect the reflex motion of stars due to orbiting planets.