What is astrophysics, and what possible benefits can it provide to society?
Astrophysics is the study of physics as applied to ‘outer space’. Generally, this includes large observable phenomena, and what causes them to behave the way they do. At first glance, this might just be planetary and celestial body motion. But there is a lot more than that. An astrophysicist might study light propagation through gas clouds, creation of elements in stars, gravitation, and space-time theories. Each of these areas has countless more focused subjects, like black holes, neutron stars, comets, radiation, effects of weightlessness, and on and on. For society, any persuit of knowledge that expands the way we think is inherently a good thing – it’s the application of that knowledge that can cause trouble. We use astrophysics to determine how to get to other planets and beyond our solar system, to devise new and safer ways to build things, to study how the human body adapts to new situations. Many novel products on the market today were created either for or because of space exp
