History of science
Who started astronomy and why do we need it? Is astronomy the same as science?
Is Astronomy the same as Science? Astronomy is a science, kind of like a Ferrari is an automobile, or an apple is a fruit. There are many other sciences, like Physics, Biology or Mathematics, and Astronomy is one of them. Who started Astronomy? Astronomy is an ancient science. People probably have watched the stars and planets for many thousands of years, and we'll never know when or where the first human being looked up at the sky and tried to understand what was there to see. Why do we need Astronomy? Astronomy's most common and practical applications have to do with understanding basic things like the seasons. From their familiarity with basic Astronomy, people can predict when the sun will rise and set on a given day, how many months until the next Summer or Winter, when the local tide will be high or low, and many other useful things. In the last few years, scientists have come to realize that objects colliding with the Earth have caused catastrophic changes in the Earth's environment many times in the past. It is, for example, likely that the dinosaurs died out after Earth was hit by a comet or an asteroid. Now that Astronomers understand how to look for such objects and track them before they hit the Earth, they'd like to learn how to keep these objects from actually hitting the earth and possibly killing people. Most professional astronomers are studying and learning things which aren't as directly important for people in their day-to-day lives, but which have profound importance to the way all people think about themselves. They are working to answer questions like: Does life exist on other planets? Could we trade radio messages with beings on other planets? Could people travel to other stars or planets and possibly live there? How old is our universe? Will the universe exist forever, or will time itself end sometime? Is the universe infinitely large, or is there some fixed space to the universe?