• Question: Why do you research about how stars born and die? Will this somehow affect us in the future or do you do the research out of interest?

    Asked by yangh to Nick, Francesca, Alan on 11 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Nick Wright

      Nick Wright answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      We mostly research things like this out of interest, but also to inspire future generations of scientists. There are many ways that this research could affect us in the future as well. For example by studying other stars we can better understand our own Sun, which can affect us on Earth a lot. We can also understand how our Sun formed, which tells us where we came from. By understanding how stars die we can understand what will happen to our Sun and then we can start to think about how and when we might want to migrate from our planet to other planets in our Galaxy.

    • Photo: Francesca Day

      Francesca Day answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      My main motivation is pure interest! But doing this kind of science is also really important for the future. We never know what will help humanity develop new technologies. For example, when the electron was discovered everyone must have thought it was useless, but now we rely on it for electricity. By understanding more about the universe, we will be able to invent more things to help each other 🙂

    • Photo: Alan Fitzsimmons

      Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Nick and Francesca are right, we mostly do it out of interest. Figuring our how stars are born along with the planets orbiting them tells us where we came from. It might be useful at some point, but to be honest we do it because we’re curious about how and why things happen.

      It’s also good to know the Sun is the type of star that won’t die for another 5,000 million years. That’s one less thing to worry about 😎

Comments