In light of everyone losing their minds over the great high resolution JWST images, what’s the functional application of this new information? Considering that we are so far away from even the closest star that interstellar travel is extremely unlikely, how does this new information help us?

Question

Let me state for the record that **I am not trolling**, and I am blown away by the imagery as much as the next person.
But what can we do with this new information? Where does it take us? How does it help us?

What’s next?

In: 262

Answer 1

You’re not the only one that thinks that. I’ve seen where other people have said that discoveries tend to come before applications. That’s absolutely true here. Aside from having awesome new images for wallpapers and such, it can advance the understanding of our own solar system, and Earth as well. To use this as an example, studying weather patterns on the other planets have helped understand Earth’s patterns and helped build/advance meteorological models. There’s a lot to be gained by looking up and out