Astronomy as an “Oxymoron”

Astronomy as an “Oxymoron”

Astronomy can be truly regarded as a exemplary and ultimate ‘ Oxymoron’.

It is one of the oldest and also one of the newest Science 

Oldest in a sense that it existed since the dawn of earliest civilization - Earliest civilizations observed , recorded and inferred the night and day sky using their ancient and simple tools and techniques; and newest in a sense that it is in a continual state of development and modifications and updation, thanks to our  modern and sophisticated tools and techniques.

It is also Science of very Small and very Big 

Astronomy encompasses the study of minuscule entities like Quarks and Leptons,as well as gigantic structures like Galaxies and Galaxy Superclusters.

It is pursued by both Scientistis and Public alike  

Astronomy is one of few sciences that is being actively pursued by scientists and public alike.With our ever increasing sophistication of tools and techniques,there is a constant ‘Data Flood’ in Astronomy, whereby only scientists alone are not able to cope up with effectively .To solve this ‘Data Deluge’ conundrum, scientists have come up with an innovative concept called “Citizen Science”.In the “Citizen Science”, all the immense data is freely available on web to the public, with simple instructions and softwares to easily classify the data in their free time.

The “Galaxy Zoo” is one of the most popular Astronomy citizen science project with record breaking public involvement.The “Galaxy Zoo” has produced many Astronomy scientific papers published with the help from both scientists and public.