Astronomy and Everyday Life

Astronomers are able to do some pretty interesting things with their modern instruments. They can look billions of light-years away, glimpsing the primordial Universe, detect far-off planets and even determine their atmospheric composition. They've used their telescopes to take detailed images of the Universe and have shared them with the world.

Pillars of Creation, Eagle Nebula, Taken by Hubble Space Telescope

However, in order to accomplish these feats, billions of dollars had to be expended to build and operate their expensive instruments. Considering no one alive today will actually visit these far-off regions of space, the average person might want to ask: Why are we spending so much money to get some cool desktop wallpapers for our computers? Ignoring the long-term usefulness of astronomy and its philosophically noble aim of understanding man's place in the Universe, what direct impact has astronomy had on everyday life? Through some serendipitous observations, astronomers have been able to create technologies with uses outside of the realm of astronomy. Here are a couple of those technologies.

Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs)
CCDs are sensitive light detectors that were invented by researchers at Bell Labs working on memory storage. They were trying  As anyone who has used the Clay Telescope will know, CCDs are important to astronomers because they allow them to take clear images and data of the objects they are observing. Though not invented by them, astronomers recognized the potential for CCDs to be used for telescope imaging and adapted the technology to suit their needs. This innovation paved the way for digital imaging as we know it and today millions of people carry a CCD in their mobile phones.

WiFi
WiFi is one of the most important technologies in our lives today and its availability can make or break a budding coffee shop. It allows us to connect to the Internet and other devices from many locations without physically connecting our computer. WiFi was invented by John O'Sullivan, an Australian astronomer who used techniques from radio astronomy. Dr. O'Sullivan has even said that "Curiously, it was a failed experiment to detect exploding mini black holes the size of an atomic particle that led to this work."

These inventions are just some of many invaluable technological developments that have come into everyday use because of astronomy. While technology transfer itself hardly justify the economic cost of astronomy research (that justification comes from emphasis on the long-term and understanding the Universe), the importance and impact of astronomy is evident all around us, whether you look up at the stars or down at the lens of your digital camera to take a CCD enabled selfie.