Space is cool, but why?

Posted on by

My project explores space and how, through both how much and how little we know about is, people are interested in it.

My research question is “Why are people interested in space?”

I was given helpful advice by Professor Belli to deepen my research, focus my topic, form a question based on my research and topic, and argue for it.  Talking with my other classmates, I took the advice and further my research on space, looking into key terms or the celestial objects that are found in space.  One that came to mind was nebula, as it was a word relating to the topic of space that is used a lot in lite-sci-fi stories.

According to an online article, Nebulae: What Are They and Where Do They Come From?, they are a cloud of dust particles, hydrogen and helium gases, and plasma and are hundreds of light years large.  While nebula’s are denser than the space outside of it, it’s still less dense than any  man-made artificial vacuum made on Earth.  When a nebula has enough gravitational attraction within itself, it comes together and collapse into stars or planets, thus also being known as a “stellar nursery”.  Despite this interesting nugget of knowledge, this brings up another question; why are people to interested in space.  Compared to many other subjects, space is an reoccurring topic used in stories, especially science fiction ones.  Asking myself this, I looked up this same question to learn the answers.

According to the article, The Real Reasons We Explore Space, this is due to human nature to learn and discover.  Due to how little we know, we want to discover more and make the unknown more known.

My next steps for my project are to research more into my question and possibly either fine tune my question and argument, or to ask a more focused question.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *