Science is a process of learning about how things work by following a series of steps: the gathering of factual knowledge, the asking of questions, the posing of falsifiable hypotheses, and the testing of those hypotheses with experiments and observations. Following all these steps is essential to building scientific knowledge. If these steps are not followed, the result of learning is non-scientific knowledge. Whereas non-scientific knowledge can be very valuable and very important, it is also very different from scientific knowledge, and cannot be used for many purposes (such as developing technology) that scientific knowledge enables. Astronomy, as the scientific study of the universe, thus serves a very important role in humanity’s quest to understand everything around us and to benefit from that understanding.