Universe has two trillion more galaxies than previously thought

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Universe has two trillion more galaxies than previously thought

AFP in Paris
Thursday 13 October 2016 19.55 BST

There are a dizzying two trillion galaxies in the universe, up to 20 times more than previously thought, astronomers reported on Thursday. The surprising finding, based on 3D modeling of images collected over 20 years by the Hubble Space Telescope, was published in the Astronomical Journal.

Scientists have puzzled over how many galaxies the cosmos harbors at least since US astronomer Edwin Hubble showed in 1924 that Andromeda, a neighboring galaxy, was not part of our own Milky Way. But even in the era of modern astronomy, getting an accurate tally has proven difficult.

To begin with, there is only part of the cosmos where light given off by distant objects has had time to reach Earth. The rest is effectively beyond our reach. And even within this “observable universe”, current technology only allows us to glimpse 10% of what is out there, according to the new findings.

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Using deep space images from Hubble, Conselice and his team painstakingly converted them into 3D to measure the number of galaxies at different times in the history of the universe. The analysis reached back more than 13bn years – very near the time of the “Big Bang” thought to have given birth to the universe.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/13/hubble-telescope-universe-galaxies-astronomy

[LisaM]

1. The nuns were right!

Back in my catechism classes, they told us that it was impossible for humans to grasp the concept of infinity (or of a world without beginning or end).

They meant it in a different context, but the comment always stuck with me and I remember it at times like these. Fascinating.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. I was thinking along the same line.

It's hard enough for us to comprehend the vastness of our galaxy alone. When they say there are two million more of them, they might as well say the cosmos is infinite. It's much, much larger than what we could ever glimpse in a lifetime.

[underpants]

2. This means several more Star Trek series possibilities

🖖

[PJMcK]

4. Not really

Don't all of the Star Trek stories take place in the four quadrants of the Milky Way galaxy? Even at the highest warp speeds, the Starfleet and other Federation starships cannot traverse intergalactic space. For example, Captain Janeway's Voyager, which was stranded by an alien in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light years away from Earth, would require 75 years to return under its own power. Traveling between galaxies, which is longer by orders of magnitude, was beyond the technology of the franchise.

Still, I long for another series!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Yes, not really at all.

People tend not to understand just how vast interstellar distances are, let alone intergalactic distances.

Here's an illustration: Our galaxy, Milky Way, as about 300 billion stars. Andromeda, a near neighbor, about 2.5 million light years away, is about three times as large with about one billion stars. Not to worry, but Milky Way and Andromeda are on a collision course, due to collide in about 4 billion years. So you'd think that lots of stars would crash into each other, right? Nope. According to an astrophysicist friend of mine, the current thinking is that no more than ten stars will do so.

[Thor_MN]

8. missed a tr... Andromeda, 1 Trillion, not Billion

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Ooops.

So what's 900 billion stars between friends?

Thank you for correcting me. Andromeda is the larger one by quite a bit.

Also, this same astronomer friend tells me there's pretty clear evidence that somewhere in the past our Milky Way has already engulfed and assimilated other galaxies. I think he said one of the proofs is places where stars are lined up and move in a different direction from other stars in that part of the galaxy.

[JonathanRackham]

3. Any chance we could get a recount?

[awoke_in_2003]

9. I saw hanging chads. nt

[PJMcK]

6. This is a fantastic discovery!

Until now, I think it was generally accepted that the universe had in the neighborhood of 100 billion galaxies. That's a tremendous number but the new estimate is staggering.

Consider that each galaxy has over 100 billion stars and the amount of space occupied by a single galaxy, then one understands that the universe is really, really big and really, really old.

Thanks for posting the link, Eugene. It was a great article!