Goal of astronomy

[wurf]

Does astronomy have goals? If so, what are they?

 

[heyscottie]

That depends on what type of astronomy you mean.<br /><br />Amateur astronomy can often have very different goals from professional astronomy, though they can overlap. Amateur astronomers are generally motivated by a sense of beauty they want to experience, or by a sense of accomplishment at finding a new object, or an object they had never seen before.<br /><br />Professional astronomy strives to answer questions connected with other sciences. It is strongly intertwined with physics, cosmology, geology, chemistry, and even biology.<br /><br />How did the universe begin?<br />How will the universe end?<br />How did Earth come to be?<br />Are there other Earthlike worlds?<br />Are there other intelligent species?<br /><br />These are big questions, all of them. And through making seemingly unconnected observations of things such as planetary nebulae and colliding galaxies, we march inevitably closer to being able to answer one or more of them!