Why DO People Do Astronomy?

It’s Kept us Alive, For One Thing

Last year I wrote a book called Astronomy 101, (listed here at Amazon, but you can find it all over the place) at the request of a publisher that wanted to reach out to people about a topic they felt was interesting, but sometimes perceived as “hard” or “too scientific” for casual reading. The idea was that people would pick up the book, read a thousand words on a topic, and they’d have a good introduction to that topic. So, I took on the challenge, and it WAS a challenge. I’ve been doing, studying, and writing about astronomy nearly all my adult life, and before that I got interested as a kid. So, in a sense, I’ve been looking up at the stars ever since.

As I pondered how to open up the topic in the introduction, I thought back to a TV show that had a LOT of influence on me. It was called Cosmos: A Personal Journey.  It was strangely prescient, since that show launched my interested in sharing astronomy with audiences.  Today, I have written many articles and books and documentary scripts about astronomy, and, even cooler, there’s a new “Cosmos” out there, wowing the next generation of skygazers.

So, it seemed fitting last year (actually before I even knew about the “new” Cosmos) to invoke Carl Sagan, who helped set us on the road to cosmic exploration a few decades ago.  Here’s part of the introduction from my book, where I make the connection from the skies to our everyday lives:

The astronomer Carl Sagan once said that modern people are descendants of astronomers. Humans have always been skywatchers. Our earliest ancestors connected the motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars to the passage of time and the yearly change of seasons. Eventually, they learned to predict and chart celestial motions. They used that information to create timepieces and calendars. Accurate knowledge of the sky has always helped navigators find their way around, whether across an ocean or in deep space.

Humanity’s fascination with the sky may have begun with shepherds, farmers, and navigators using the sky for daily
needs, but today that interest has blossomed into a science. Professional astronomers use advanced technology and techniques to measure and chart objects and events very precisely. New discoveries come constantly, adding to a priceless treasury of knowledge about the universe and our place in it. In addition, the tools and technologies of astronomy and space exploration find their way into our technologies. If you fly in a plane, use a smartphone, have surgery, surf the Internet, shop for clothes, eat food, ride in a car, or any of the countless things you do each day, you use technology that in some way derived from astronomy and space science.

It would be really great if we could see a resurgence of interest in astronomy among more people. There are people who can bring the sky to you and bring YOU to an understanding of it. They work in planetariums and science centers. They’re teachers and professors. They belong to astronomy clubs and online discussion groups. Some are like me: we write books that we hope will share OUR love of the sky with you.

I’ve written before about how the universe is in our DNA, through the chemical elements created inside stars, for example. So, it makes a lot of sense that we are intimately connected to the universe, and that in our history, we finally learned to look back up at the stars, use them, and learn about them. Now it’s time to kick up our education to the next notch, to accept that connection and embrace the cosmos for the learning experience it is giving us.