• Question: Why do we study about things that are so far away from us such as other galaxies?

    Asked by ZombieBomb to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Studying astronomical objects tells us about the structure of the universe and how laws of physics like gravity work. A big problem in modern science is trying to match up quantum mechanics (theory of small things) with gravity (theory of big things). By learning how other stars and galaxies move, we can learn more about how gravity works on big objects, then we can hopefully understand it well enough to make it join up with quantum theory for small objects.

      More abstractly, studying galaxies and things tells us a lot about the history of the universe, how it evolved, where it came from, and what might happen to the universe in the future. There are so many interesting questions that astronomy is trying to answer – it’s a fascinating field.

    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      @ZombieBomb in fact, the Hubble space telescope allows astronomers to look at objects from 13.3 billion years ago! That’s only about 4000 years after the Big Bang. Amazing don’t you think?!!!

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