When Humanity Started Looking Up

Stargazing has always brought a sense of wonderment to humanity. From early civilizations to modern societies, people look up and feel a diverse array of emotions, as well as inspiration to imagine and create. The scientific fields related to stargazing, such as astronomy, cosmology, and physics, have led to some of the biggest technological advancements in human history. It has also helped shape forms of spirituality, art, and philosophy.

Many scientists believe that by examining the stars they will be able to determine the origins of the universe, and even the genesis of life itself. It is these ideas and theories that drive the fields of science focused on the cosmos. Humanity’s curiosity of the heavens is one of the most profound facets of existence and will continue to drive the development of modern society forward.

How Astronomy Shaped Human History

Throughout history one of the most influential fields of science to affect humanity has been astronomy. Our ancestors from across the globe have used it to predict the changing of the seasons and weather, help navigate vast oceans and deserts, and even to guide their hands when building the great wonders of their time. Beyond that, our ancestors derived many of their spiritual beliefs from the stars. From ancient Mesoamericans and Chinese, and even further back in Babylonia when they developed their Zodiac, which would later influence the Greek pantheon. It is possible to trace astronomy’s influence to the building of Stonehenge, which began around 3100 BCE, over 1,500 years before any of the previous listed.

here is no real evidence to pinpoint when and where astronomy began, as it is unique to each ancient civilization, and many of its aspects can be attributed to different cultures. With that, one thing is proven true, that all sciences arise with the development of human culture. As time moved forward, those sciences became more precise with the development of technology and humanity’s understanding of the world around them.

In an interview with Nicolas Levraud, an astronomer and engineer who works on instrumentation for telescopes at the Observatoire de Paris, he noted that in many places of the world nobility, monarchs, and heads of organized religions are some of the biggest enablers of the field of astronomy. Many funded the development of the field to further their understanding of the universe, but not always for scientific purposes. Instead, some funded the astrological studies that could prove certain beliefs held in their respective cultures. This eventually led to the development of ancient astronomy for many civilizations.

One of the best examples that came out of Europe was the different Christian churches funding scholars in the fields of astrology and astronomy, but only allowed certain viewpoints to be made public. Those viewpoints often supported their claim to power, and they tried very hard to silence those who found evidence to question their power and present evidence that was in the churches’ eyes contradictory.

One of the most famous scholars to do this was Copernicus, who began the Copernican Revolution, a movement that sought to disregard the Ptolemaic model of our solar system, in which the sun revolved around a stationary Earth. Instead, Copernicus theorized that the Earth revolved around the sun and helped develop the idea of a heliocentric model of our solar system. Many other theories arose from brave scientists ready to question the institutions holding science back and helped propel fields like astronomy forward.

How Modern Minds Transformed the Sciences

Often the modernization of astronomy and related fields will be attributed to the invention of rocketry, the space race, and the missions that sent astronauts to the moon. Dr. Levraud points out that it can be traced back further to Edwin Hubble’s discoveries. “One of the big shifts that astronomy caused… is due to Edwin Hubble and the measurement of the galaxy. The fact that the universe is so immensely big and there are these kinds of islands (other galaxies), and then there was this realization that they move very fast.” He goes on to explain that if you reverse these galaxies’ movements, you will eventually see all of them end up at the same point, which gives us the starting point of the universe. 

Listen to the interview here:

Hubble is noted for helping establish the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. In fact, his research led to the confirmation that other galaxies existed outside of our own Milky Way. While scientists had previously speculated this was a possibility, his observations led him to theorize that some of the nebulae that had been identified previously were other galaxies. His main subject of the study was the galaxy formerly known as the Andromeda Nebula. In his observations of Andromeda, he discovered his first Cepheid star, and studied its cycle of brightness. By doing so, he determined that Andromeda was much further away than originally thought, and this led him to believe it was another galaxy.

Later, in 1926, Robert H. Goddard was the first person to successfully develop and launch a rocket powered by liquid fuel. This led to new possibilities in the fields of aerospace and rocketry. Soon after, the world fell into another great war which became known as World War II. During this time, rockets became a desired means for launching long range ballistics. One of the most famous rockets from this time was known as the V2, invented by Wernher von Braun. After a successful launch of two V2s in 1944, which hit Paris and London, von Braun was famously quoted as saying, “the rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.” The V2 was also the first artificial object to escape our atmosphere only two and a half months earlier. After the war, von Braun would be recruited by the American government to help develop the technology that would put the first astronauts on the Moon. 

From Hubble’s incredible discovery to the start of the space race, humanity saw a monumental growth in the fields relating to astronomy, aerospace, and cosmology. In October of 1957, the former Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space, Sputnik 1. This would mark the beginning of the space race, and eventually propel the United States to send astronauts to the moon for the first time ever. 

The Current Approach to Understanding the Cosmos

Though the space race ended in 1975 with the first successful collaboration between the Soviet Union and the United States, humans were far from done with their mission to understand the universe. Over the next few decades, government organizations like NASA continued to launch satellites, build earth bound and space telescopes, as well as send astronauts into space. In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Telescope, which captured the most detailed images of stellar objects up to that point in time. With that, the public became fascinated once again with what could possibly be discovered beyond the Earth’s orbit.

Even with the reignited passion for space exploration, there were still many hurdles astronomers, aerospace engineers, physicists, and cosmologists had to clear to advance their work. The biggest one was budgetary restraints placed by the very same governments that saw to the inception of organizations like NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA for instance had seen its budget shrink substantially after the space race ended, but the US government continued to hinder spending over the next couple of decades, which has made funding projects extremely difficult.

In response to dwindling government budgets, private space companies have burst onto the scene in recent years. The most prominent being SpaceX. With the rise of these private companies in the aerospace field, there has been incredible advancements in rocketry and the ability to send humans, supplies, satellites, and other scientific equipment into space. The problem with this is that they are also taking away government funded contracts that should be going to organizations like NASA. 

Many have argued that because they are doing it better and are able to turn a profit, in some ways, they are more deserving of these funds. As Nicolas Levraud points out, this is not the case. When speaking about why government funded and non-profit driven organizations are so important, Dr. Levraud makes a clear case, “there are not, at least that I am aware of, any companies that really plan on sending satellites further than the Moon’s orbit.” He goes on to say, “even just the observatories on Mars, the observatories on Jupiter or around the Sun, there is no obvious return on investment, and that’s the point of a company to make.” 

His case is very clear and highlights the problem with defunding organizations that have no agenda other than advancing the sciences related to exploring space. Specifically, if the United States government continues to follow through with gutting NASA’s funding and giving it to companies like SpaceX, we will not see any real progress in STEM related fields, outside of just improving technology that already exists. Profit cannot be the main factor when considering the advancement of any scientific field, rather it must be driven by the ideals of scientific advancement and pushing humanity into the next phase of exploration and understanding of the universe. 

A Star-Bound Future

In 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched, and six months later the first images were released to the public. These images had the exact same effect that the images from Hubble did, and once again, the public became infatuated with the idea of exploring space. It is debatable if that infatuation was as strong as it was during the space race, but it is undeniable there has been a revamp in public interest. Still, there seems to be a lot of questions around the validity of funding projects like this, and not just focusing on commercial space travel.

Even though many are worried about the state of STEM here in the US, with massive budget cuts and the attack on education from rightwing politicians, other countries are propelling forward at full steam. Japan has plans to send probes to the Martian moons Deimos and Phobos. The Chinese are looking to land taikonauts on the Moon by 2030. India is planning to build their own space station in the coming decades. Russia intends to build a new space station, with the first module being planned for launch in 2027. They are also planning missions to return to the Moon. In Europe, the ESA is getting ready to launch part two of their ExoMars mission, to land a rover on Mars and search for any signs of life, past or present, on the planet. 

Two of the most exciting things to keep an eye on are the Lunar Gateway project and the completion of the Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT. The Lunar Gateway will be a new collaborative space station built in the orbit of the Moon and will allow scientists to conduct a multitude of experiments concerning astrophysics, biology, observation, and many more. The ELT will be an Earthbound telescope, and the largest one ever built. It will be a reflecting telescope with a mirror diameter of almost 40 meters. One of its main uses will be searching for extrasolar planets, or planets that orbit stars that are not our Sun.

Humanity is Still Looking Up

All these missions could rekindle humanity’s imagination and to inspire people to continue the very important work of exploring space. Additionally, they will aid with discovering the origins of life and the universe, as well as someday allowing the habitation of planets other than our own. Funding organizations that are not profit driven is a very important part of this, but there are other components to consider.

Societies must ensure and protect our ability to see the stars from Earth with the help of movements and organizations like Dark Sky International. Protecting the ability to look up and wonder is a key factor in stoking inspiration within every community. Beyond that, Dr. Levraud points out one thing that is true for almost everyone, “when you get far from the city, you can just go out, put a blanket in the field, and just let the stars shine for a few hours. It is one of the most calming and soothing ambiances you can have.”