astronomy limps and lurches and sometimes gallops

An example of an extended metaphor in popular science writing:

"Astronomy is thus a four-legged animal standing on sound and false ideas at the front and sound and false observations at the rear. Amazingly, the beast can limp forward, sometimes even gallop, from one discovery to the next. And lurching on its way to valuable information about the nature and history of the universe it has in passing exposed the character of those ephemera, the tails of comets."

Nigel Calder

Calder, N. (1980). The Comet is Coming! The feverish legacy of Mr Halley. British Broadcasting Corporation.