non illegitimus carborundum

Used to argue a lot with people about why astronomy is important. Now I don't usually care enough to bother.

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It never fails that at several points in our lives as astronomers someone is going to ask us why what we do is important. Why don't we instead focus the money and brain power that we use for checking out the sky on something more relevant like cancer research, the economy, or world hunger? If giving the response "Fuck off." doesn't work for you and you have the desire to defend your discipline, it is certainly possible to do so, and it's easier than you might think.

Sometimes the most telling fact that I think about, before delving into the back and forths of why each aspect of astronomy is important, is that astronomy is basically the oldest natural science. It predates physics, geology, biology, chemistry, all of the other modern sciences you can think of. People from the oldest recorded civilizations (we're talking 3,000-4,000 years ago) studied astronomy for reasons both practical and whimsical. To this day, the fruits of astronomical exploration continue to benefit the majority of the human population on a daily basis.

Some people will be convinced that studying astronomy is important when they realize the practical day-to-day applications. To name a few, we have astronomy to thank for: navigation, measurement of time, calendars, understanding the Earth's motion (seasons, night/day, atmospheric phenomena, satellites), communication (internet, iPhones, etc.), other forms of technology (microwave ovens, pacemakers), space flight (enabling low oxygen/gravity environment for studying physics, biology, chemistry), and the list goes on and on.

No need to stop there. It's possible the asshole you're talking to said, "That's great, if we have all these things, why continue?" When combating this in the past I have found myself pointing out the importance of studying astronomy on multiple scales in great detail.

Why study the Solar System? You respond that its to understand bodies in the Solar System, in order to know where they came from, what will happen to them, and how they affect us. Phenomena of interest include the tides, solar flares, asteroid impacts, yada yada yada...

Why study the Milky Way? You respond that its to understand stars (how they form, how they die) and how they affect us. Phenomena of interest include formation of stellar and planetary systems (life?), nearby potential supernovae (p.s. there aren't any), gamma ray bursts (like GRB060218), the black hole at the GC, etc.

Why study the Universe? You respond that its to understand the origins, current state, and fate of ourselves and the universe as a whole. Phenomena of interest on this scale include unique and apparently multiple forms of matter, obscure fundamental particles, the nature of spacetime, symmetries and anti-symmetries found in both large and small scale structure, and all implications.

Note that that defense is based solely on how studying astronomy affects the Earth. A completely different approach is to wax philosophical and say "because we should." You can always throw at them some version of the Anthropic Principle (choosing the weak, strong, or any other version). I like the strong version which states that the Universe must have certain characteristics that allow observers (us) to evolve within it. That can be interpreted as observers are necessary to bring the Universe to its current state of being. That's not to say we caused the Universe or that it can't exist without us. More so that the conditions that allowed both we and the Universe to evolve into our current states must necessarily be the same. If a linked existence doesn't make studying the Universe and everything in it seem important, I don't know if anything ever will.

One thing the skeptics can never answer is where to draw the line. They'll agree that astronomy impacts technology and its also great to know if an asteroid is going to smack into us or some high-energy event is going to smatter us with radiation. What they won't see is why we look past that and study on larger scales. Imagine if we stopped studying astronomy 300 years ago. Galileo has already discovered the Galilean satellites, Copernicus set us straight with the Sun-centered Universe earlier, who needs to keep looking? Think about what we wouldn't know--everything from technology we wouldn't have to nearby threats to the Earth we wouldn't know about, to how small and insignificant yet rare and precious our little planet is. If we stop now, who knows what we'll miss or need to know in the future? It's not the reasons we can come up with to keep studying astronomy, it's the reasons we can't predict. Who are we to draw the line and say we know enough?

These are really the reasons that I find meaning in astronomy to begin with. If you haven't convinced your friend/foe that astronomy is worthwhile by now, by all means, give up. You've wasted enough breath. After all, at the end of the day, the only person you really have to convince that what you do is important, is yourself.