"The Universe is a Place of Great Variety - After All, it has Everything in It!"

Galileo Galilei: A "modern" astronomer - Photo Courtesy of wikipedia.

Throughout history, the studies and observations of the universe have led to discoveries that have effected humanity and the way we think. Astronomers were the ones to make these discoveries, such as Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton.

Modern Astronomy is a dense field and interesting enough it's origin was in the 17th century. This means that Kepler, Galileo, Newton and Halley are all considered "modern" astronomers. (Hundreds of years later, astronomers are still considered "modern"?) 21st Century astronomers (i.e. today's astronomers) do it all, from mapping our universe to describing behavior of celestial objects with physics. They are not just observers. They have in my opinion, one of the hardest objectives out of many fields, to construct models of objects and/or complex systems of objects that are light years away. This is an extremely difficult task, not just because objects are so far away, but due to the amount of time it takes to accomplish it. Astronomers are dealing with objects that have lifetimes beyond our comprehension. They will never have the ability to trap a star and bring it into the lab for experimentation, let alone a solar system or galaxy. 21st century astronomers also work on things like space travel, rockets, telescopes, detectors, and how to prevent the earth from being hit by a celestial object, perhaps a meteor or comet. Astronomers are remarkable, and like many scientists, are dedicated (dare I say patient?) individuals.

Another job of the modern astronomer is to give humanity a sense of scale of the universe. This incorporates the scale of our everyday experience and then expands in either direction of the very small and very large. This sense of scale includes many things, such as distance, size and time. On that note, check back soon for a post on just that, a sense of scale.


References:

Pasachoff, Jay A., Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe. 1991. Saunders College Publishing, a division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.