You are right that we can't go right up to the areas we study and touch them in person!

Many of us do a lot of our work on computers from our desks or in laboratories. I usually work with spacecraft data - so I am basically using robotic spacecraft to go out in the field for me.

Not always, though. I have many colleagues who launch instruments on rockets or high altitude balloons and that has to be done from particular locations. Also, we sometimes observe conditions in space from the ground at special observatories.

I know people who have spent weeks in Antarctica launching a balloon or in an isolated compound near the South Pole operating a special telescope. Antarctica can be an important area for observing the Sun because of the long, uninterrupted daylight during the summer.

Terry