Why I Love Astronomy

I was a student at the University of Toronto who completed five astronomy courses, each ending with a final grade ranging from A to A+.

I have a deep passion and interest in the scientific discipline of Astronomy. It is not only my favourite kind of science, but it is also the most interesting subject/topic that I wish to bring up when it comes to learning and listening about the world beyond Earth. When I was a child, I always took passion in watching space-related documentaries. But that was not why I started getting interested in Astronomy. At a very young age, I learned that there existed this realm beyond our planet, a realm so vastly large and unknown to me that captured my attention. As a young child and adoloescent, people usually scoffed at me for thinking about space, saying its too "childish," "simple," and "too big for one to comprehend, so why bother?" To me, my reasoning for having such a deep passion in such an ancient, profound, and knowledgeable discipline is simple. Why would anyone think that the Universe is any less interesting that the world that we already know? Why should people look down on those who embrace Astronomy? What is wrong with Astronomy as a scientific discipline? How could such knowledge, expertise, and practice in something we cannot completely comprehend be so bland, compare to more prominiently studied sciences?

I am not saying that the "mainstream" sciences of biology, chemistry, physics etc are uninteresting; I am saying that these sciences, which are taught in many schools around the world lack an aura of imagination - a literal sense of exploration and discovery into the unknown. Of course, we certainly don't know everything that is to do with these sciences, but we also have no right to say anything less about Astronomy. In fact, I would boldly make the claim that Astronomy not only is literally a science that has to do with all sorts of phenemenon beyond or within the realm of our planet, but it also transcends the aura of the other sciences. What biology, chemistry, and physics (B/C/P) say alone, may not not complete without considering astronomy, which provides the ultimate context for understanding our world.

Many can claim that physics does not need astronomy to make it complete because physics can already provide us enough understanding and information to understand reality, but what is the practical context for understanding something like quantum mechanics in an Earth-bound context? Does studying quantum mechanics with respect to the Earth a complete way of understanding our world? I do feel that the B/C/P set are all essential for describing reality, but the one thing that they all lack, in my opnion, is imagination and the literal sentiment that one can keep learning and exploring something infinitely. Sure, we may never reach the final extents of B/C/P and learning everything there is to know about their subject matter, but I argue that not reaching the final extent of the literally and scientifically wide discipline of Astronomy gives us hope - the hope that we as an intelligent species are capable of answering more and more of the Big Questions, even if we cannot ever comprehend the truth of everything there ever is.

I argue that we do not see this kind of "hope" in B/C/P because they are all taught with the sentiment that the knowledge and understanding that these disciplines bestow upon us are complete. But that idea is certainly untrue. B/C/P are not subject matters that can be completely understood nor can Astronomy, but they lack the sentiment that more scientific progress can be done. We are usually taught B/C/P up to very high levels of understanding, but knowing and understanding so much about them makes us vulnerable to the idea that we "know everything." With Astronomy, we are not that vulnerable to this idea especially when it is increasingly evident that scientific progress in the discipline of Astronomy might never end. I find this idea quite fitting for Astronomy.

As we develop more knowledge and understanding about the subject, so does the universe as it expands with time. Astronomy is not only an every growing science that simply deals with facts about space and venturing/exploring into the unknown, but it also emulates a sense of endless imagination, bringing its own topics to life. Even if something like stellar evolution is taught repeately over and over again, I would never lose interest. In this age, when we learn from B/C/P, we have devloped a habit to place limits on what we have already learned; this is esepcially relevant when there are only a miniscule number of people in the entire population who want to expand the borders of knowledge in B/C/P by writing reserach papers. However, what we learn from Astronomy has no subconcious restrictions nor imaginative limits. Even if anyone acquires some degree of knowledge and understanding in this discpline, they would never find it to be enough. This is why astonomy, as a subject of study, is so fascinating. We can have already learned everything that we do far know about astronomy or we don't know anything about it at all and still be fasicnated either way or in between.