[mturmon]

I guess you could go through recent Nobel prizes (in physics) and see how many came from astrophysics/astronomy vs. Earth-bound physics? One recent astrophysics Nobel off the top of my head is the discovery of dark energy (whatever it may be) due to supernovae occurrences.

[scrumbledober]

dark energy doesn't seem to have much practical use yet

[Balgair]

I have a feeling that this may be one of the understatements of the millennium.