(07-25-2022, 12:52 PM)hollodero Wrote: The answer to these questions matter because they give scientists a better understanding of the nature of things. Which is always the first step towards any innovation. Answering questions about the universe can lead to breakthroughs on many fields that might look unrelated at first glance, including quantum physics for example. I am not too versed in these fields to make an air-tight case about that, but I had enough of a glance to know things are often way more complicated, entangled and relevant than they appear for the outsider, determining what is a waste of resources and what isn't.
Just heuristically, the sun does fusion power, something we'd very much like to adapt. Studying the sun and the birth of suns could very well point to say a catalyst of sorts, or to a set of circumstances that starts the solar oven, something we can learn from. Or not, I don't know. But one won't know unless one tries to understand, hence trying to understand as much as possible seems to be a logical goal for humankind to me.
(07-27-2022, 04:53 PM)treee Wrote: Better measurement devices (Webb) --> Better understanding of physics --> Better technology
Exactly. The scientists have already stated, that the images from Webb have reinforced or changed their views on certain parts of physics.
Probably one of the best recent examples of the expenditure of science was the big reveal of the first image of the Super Massive Black Hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It was shown in a big reveal event for NASA and NSF. They used the Chandra XRAY Observatory.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2022/5/12/telescopes-get-extraordinary-view-of-milky-ways-black-hole/
Not to get into the details (see link above for details), but listening to all the Scientist being excited and why, one particular thing struck me. One of the scientists said the Physics community has been waiting for decades for flaws to reveal themselves in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but with the current revelations of the study of these Black Hole, the opposite happened, in that the work they did tested and proved Einstein correct. And that the techniques used in the study could be used in the future as a tool to test the physics of relativity around any particular object. They were almost giddy.
There is no telling where this will take science, but it is inspiring, exciting and somewhat terrifying. What will we see next? What will it lead to next? It's more than a bunch of pretty pictures. The pictures and explanations are tools to excite a layman public. A picture is as they say worth 1,000 words, whereas in this case the pictures have hundreds of scientific possibility before and after them, which they do not shart with the public because they'll go to sleep. lol
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
