How does Astronomy, amateur and professional, contribute to humanity and a better world?

Question

I think this is a good question to ask.

There are possibly many aspects to this question. Astronomy and seeking knowledge has lead to the development of space probes, space science, development of technology, it provides and evidence based view of our universe and context to societal and cultural understandings, it provides intellectual interest and pursuit to many, particularly at amateur level, to suggest a few.

What would a full list include of the positive aspects of contribution? How has an interest in Astronomy, or an answer to an Astronomy question, made a positive difference in your life?

Seeking specific answers and examples, not discussion.

Answer 1

Incomplete list of ways astronomy has helped humanity:

• The study of astronomy in ancient times was necessary for predicting the seasons and aided in farming as calendars were (and still are) based on astronomical events. (source)
• In ancient times (and still today) studying astronomy was greatly important for navigation. Sighting on stars or the Sun can tell you your position in the world. (source)
• Studying astronomy has helped humanity answer some of it's most basic questions of our place in the universe. Examples include Galileo's evidence that we are not the center of the universe (source) or the Shapley-Curtis debate which ultimately proved humanity was even smaller than we thought. This fulfills certain philosophical needs that I believe everyone possesses.
• Using spectroscopy, we first found the existence of Helium in the Sun before we knew about it from chemistry or discovered it on Earth (source). Helium has become immensely useful for a variety of technologies including various science technologies and medical devices (source).
• Astronomy has helped us prove General Relativity, one of the important theories describing our universe. Practical uses of GR include GPS technology (source).
• Astronomy may help us answer the question of whether we're alone in the universe. Obviously this is highly presumptive, but I would not be surprised to learn that within 30 years we will have some evidence of the existence of (microbial) life outside our solar system using the future missions TESS and JWST (source).
• The entire realm of space physics, a sub-category of astronomy, has resulted in, arguably, the largest impact on humanity. Our ventures into space have resulted in an explosion of technology that needed to be developed to overcome hurdles of space travel which then found applications in our every day life. NASA even publishes a magazine called Spinoff which documents these many technologies.
• In the same vein as the last point, humanity's space race and technological feats related to space have inspired generations of students to become scientists and engineers. Don't have a source for this directly, but I'd be surprised if no one was inspired by the space race.
• In many ways, concepts in astronomy guided work in particle physics. The need to conserve energy in fusion reactions in the Sun ultimately led to the proposal for the existence of the neutrino (source). Furthermore, neutrino oscillations were a proposed solution to the Solar Neutrino Problem.
• Astronomy helped to predict the existence of dark matter. This is somewhat presumptive as well, but if we can prove dark matter exists, and understand it in more depth, there's no telling what technologies may result from that. There's not so much a source for this as this is just a hopeful statement.

Answer 2

Historically in the last late 20th century, Astronomy requiring access to observations and study from both hemispheres, was one avenue of tentative international collaboration between politically opposed and competing nation states, helping melt some of the intense political divides of the times. Astronomy provided a relatively safe and first trust step in greater cooperation and collaboration.

Article(s) relating to this view:

• International co-operation in astronomy (Abstract)
• About the International Astronomical Union (IAU)

Answer 3

Amateur astronomy provides a relatively low level and easy access for ordinary people to learn, explore, participate, and possibly contribute to an area of science and the development of human knowledge.

Amateur contributions include:

• Early identification of new comets. eg David Levy, Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker
• Early identification of new nova and supernova. eg Robert Evans
• Data collection and monitoring of individual variable stars. Top 12 naked-eye variable stars
• Monitoring and location of ground zero of meteorites that reach the ground. eg Meteorite tracking network Australia
• Monitoring of changes on planets, such as dust storms on Mars, or changes on Jupiter for the Juno mission. Junocam