There's a lot more to explore out there then there is here.
We are working on both, it's just you hear about space and nasa a lot more than you hear about some obscure subspecies of clam that was discovered after 40 years of research.
There are some crazy things with space like, for one, the magnitude...
2... Black holes... something that is so dense because of a 0 in the volume/mass equation that is exists within a mathematical point, which should be impossible because there is a definite atomic mass that cannot be compressed to the point where an astronomical gravitational pull stronger than a star occurs.
3... the red shift caused by the doppler affect, simply put: Other galaxies are redder than they should be, because C is a constant speed of light, and the wavelength is longer because the frequency is lower because the wavelnegth = frequency divided by the speed of light. This is similar to where if someone is playing a C on their guitar, an observer approaching them at ~55 MPH hears a D because the waves are hitting them more fequently, creating a higher frequency
What this means is other galaxies are moving away from us. Not only are things redder than they should be, they keeping getting more redder, meaning they are moving away from us faster and faster.
All these things are much more fascinating to the general public, at least in my opinion.