Careers in Astronomy in Canada

Many reasons can be enumerated. The most usual ones follow.
Note: Astronomy = Astrophysics, for our purposes here.

• For its broadness. Astronomy is the science with the broader horizons full of new tech gizmo. The appeal of astronomy comes at an early age (6 y. old), full of excitement. Important discoveries are made each year, and will be for many decades to come.

• For the environment. The Sun sustains all life on Earth. During an 11-year solar sunspot activity there are times when charged particles from huge solar flares are emitted and bombard the Earth, interfering with communications systems, electric power grids, and even the yields of semiconductor chip production. In the long run (in 4 billion years), the Sun's core will have exhausted its hydrogen-burning life, and the Sun will grow to be a red giant star encompassing/eating up its lower planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth.

• For its beauty and wonder. We all marvel at all the different objects that are in the night sky: planets, nebulae, masers, dust spots, black holes, interstellar magnetic fields, galaxies; and maybe also different Life forms, and maybe other Intelligences. We can begin to contemplate the meaning or wisdom of it all.

• For the its newness. New objects are found from time to time, such as "proplyds", proto-stellar disks, jets, "light echoes", bursters, "Einstein rings", intergalactic walls and voids, gravitational lenses. There seems no be no end to the discoveries...

• For Science. Gains in knowledge are made through RESEARCH, a thorough inquiry started by defining a question, gathering relevant data, formulating an hypothesis inside a theoretical model, and then TESTING the predictions of that hypothesis. The testing results will confirm or infirm that hypothesis, devising a better model or abandoning the model for a new one.

• For the Technology. Astronomers are using ground-based telescopes, equipped with the latest electronic instruments and analysing hardware. They also use powerful supercomputers and modeling software.

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