An earthly tangent to this is remote sensing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_sensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_sensing). It's not quite as incr

An earthly tangent to this is remote sensing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_sensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_sensing). It's not quite as incredible as inferring whole ecosystems on distant planets but it is amazing what scientists are able to achieve using these techniques. I think a lot of people are aware that the field exists but don't realize how much "hard" science is/was involved especially when it was a relatively new technology with more limited IT resources. Edit. It also reminds me of the recent debate about automation taking jobs. I work in GIS and every office has someone near retirement age who remembers the days of mapping terrain with actual photos and a stereoscope - it's all automated these days and uses technologies such as LIDAR. The result has been a boom in geospatial jobs.