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Universe

The Universe is the container for absolutely everything we know. The Hubble telescope has begun to show us how large the universe is.

We are in the Milky Way galaxy. It is just one of an estimated 125 billion galaxies in the Universe. Recent results from the Hubble telescope would indicate that this number is grossly underestimated!!!

Hubble gas cloud
Hubble gas cloud
credit:NASA, ESA and J. Hester (ASU)
Dark Matter Ring in Galaxy Cluster
Dark Matter Ring in Galaxy Cluster
credit:NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)

It is impossible to imagine the size of the Universe. But to make things even more difficult to grasp, let us consider the number of stars in our galaxy alone. Of course we have no way of counting them all. But astronomers are serious when they estimate that there are 200 billion to 400 billion stars contained within the Milky Way.

Star V838 Monocerotis
Star V838 Monocerotis
credit:NASA, ESA and H.E. Bond (STScI)
Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16)
Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16)
credit:NASA, ESA, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University)

 

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