The array of scientific avenues in the Earth Science discipline covers both time and space. Time is theme of Archeology, Paleontology, and Geology. Beyond each of these disciplines are the areas of Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Geophysics and Tectonics. Space incorporates Astronomy, Astrophysics, Physical Cosmology and Stellar Astrophysics.
There are numerous sub-divisions of each of the disciplines sited above and more research is being assisted world-wide with the advent of the Internet. Scientists from all over the globe are able to conduct research, publish findings and communicate with fellow researchers like never before in human history. This advantage creates unending networks of scientists, theoreticians, researchers and others who can investigate, catalog, and report discoveries within moments of their revelation from different points on the globe.
Archeology and Paleontology, long the disciplines of earth-bound discoverers, have benefited greatly from tools and technology stationed far off in space. Satellites using infra-red, photo and radar imaging have brought about amazing discoveries for the earth-bound searchers, enabling them to locate and record data from regions previously inaccessible. More importantly, many discoveries remained unexplored due to the size and physical area incorporated in their structure. Ankor Wat, the amazing city built thousands of years ago in modern day Cambodia, was long thought to be a system of temples and buildings covering a ten-mile square area. Satellites have shown Ankor Wat is actually hundreds of square miles in area, due to the photographic and radar-enhanced views beamed to earth. Scientists are now re-writing the books on the scope and dimension of this early civilization’s impact on the entire region of Southeast Asia.
Technological wonders like the space-based telescopes employed by the new wave of scientists investigating the Cosmos have given new insight into Earth’s place in the solar system and the galaxy at large. Vast distances, unimaginable fifty years ago, can be viewed through the eyes of the orbiting platforms sending back amazing images, spectral light scans and detailed chemical analysis of what the stars are truly made from. Theoretical science has, in many aspects, become proven scientific facts thanks to these space-based microscopes focused on our universe.