Although the sun, moon and the stars are very far from the Earth, they often affect our lives.
For this reason people attempt to study space by observing all that happens.
Also they launch satellites and long range spacecrafts to get clear and more accurate information.
A satellite image map of the Earth at night.
Fun Fact:
The sun is a star, just like the other stars we see at night. The difference is distance—the other stars we see are light years away, while our sun is only about 8 light minutes away (many thousands of times closer).