What makes astrophysicist tick?

But people might ask, “who cares?” I asked Dr. Thompson this question – why should we care about some bright thing that’s far away? His first response was that we never know what the pursuit of knowledge will lead us to. He told me about Einstein’s theory of general relativity. To most people, this is a scientific concept that they think they will never encounter. However, a lot of us have become lost without our GPS systems in our cars or phones. These GPS systems make use of a network of satellites that orbit the Earth. Because the gravitational field is different for these satellites, time passes for them differently. If scientists didn’t account for the general relativity consequences, these satellites couldn’t function, and neither would GPS. On more of a character note, Dr. Thompson also said, “Curiosity makes us human” and it makes us special. We ask questions and we try to find the answers, even if it’s difficult. “If we stop being curious then we are being less than we can be,” he continued. Dr. Thompson then told me about how these AGN affect the entire galaxy that they are a part of. How does energy and influence travel that far? We don’t know yet, but we want to. “This is how the universe works. It’s how the universe evolved and helped to make it what it is today.” So let’s keep asking questions and trying to figure out how our universe works!