What Astronomy is all about?

Ever since the start of time, man has looked up at the heavens and wondered what was up there. Whether you are a person that takes a look at the stars and just sighs with contentment or whether you are a person that can name every constellation off by heart, the inspiration that a person can get from astronomy remains the same. It is the heavenly science and it is the science of inspiration. The stuff that is studied by astronomers (stars, planets and galaxies) is quite literally the stuff of dreams.
This is one of the reasons that the space race between the former Soviet Union and the United States of America was so profound and such an important part of history. In the struggle between those two competing ideologies, they were actually united in agreement in that the ultimate epitome in their quest for greater knowledge was the fact that they would enter space. And not just enter space, but continue to move along until the point where everyone imaginable would be able to look up at the heavens and associate them with progress.

Political reasons aside though, there is this very great inspirational force behind space and space research; a force that is felt by every astronomer that decides to go into their field. If you talk to biologists or chemists, you will hear most of them say that they went into their science to save lives; a very noble goal, but not really one that identifies with the idea of infinite inspiration. However, if you talk to astronomers, you will hear them discuss the heavens, the cosmos and the infinite possibilities provided to us by space exploration and space research.
This, essentially, is what astronomy is. It is the study of stars and space and it allows people to learn about that which they have dreamed about all of their lives. Currently, research in astronomy relates to a number of different areas but the most popular stuff at the moment rests around planetary science and the search for planets around other stars. The technology is being developed as fast as the science in this area and at the current moment every new discovery is met with great excitement.