Although we live in a world faced with the
many immediate problems of hunger, poverty,
energy and global warming, we argue
that astronomy has long-term benefits that
are equally important to a civilised society.
Several studies have told us that investing
in science education, research and technology
provides a great return — not only
economically, but culturally and indirectly
for the population in general — and has
helped countries to face and overcome crises.
In fact, the scientific and technological
development of a country or region
has been shown to be closely linked to its
human development index — a statistic