[outworlder]

> There's not a lot of practical benefit to looking at the stars beyond trying to understand the universe we live in.

Of course there is! We are not just looking at pretty pictures. We are also refining our understanding of physics.

Dark matter alone is a glaring indicator that we don't understand what's going on nearly as much as we should. Without any telescopes we wouldn't even know that our theories had a problem.

Improved physics understanding has always led to technological leaps. Be it electromagnetism, photonics, or even just relativistic effects. And now, quantum computers.