The Number of Stars

The Number of Stars

Nine hundred years ago, the number of stars visible to the naked eye would have been about 8000 total. So through thousands of years, the total number of stars could not have been estimated.

With the invention of the telescope by Galileo the number of stars increased to just about 30197. But, even that was  just the beginning toward knowing reality.

Even with a  modern telescopes on earth (like one at the IRAM - Plateau de Bure Interferometer at Plateau de Bure, France), you don't really get a real picture of the true number of stars in the universe. The atmosphere limits what you can see with your telescope.

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Today's Infonugget

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. When an object is moving at a constant velocity (or if it is standing still) it has zero acceleration. An object whose velocity is increasing has a positive acceleration. An accretion disk is a flat disk of gas and dust in space that surrounds a newborn star, black hole, or other enormous object that is growing by attracting matter to it with its gravitational field.

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 The electric lights of our cities called light pollution, also decreases the ability to see the stars. That is why large telescopes are usually away from cities. But even that limits our vision.

The true number of stars that were known increased by leaps and bounds with the first telescopes in space. Without the atmosphere and light pollution those who study the stars finally got a real idea of the real number of stars in the sky.

In fact, Carl Sagan estimated that there were 100 billion galaxies in the universe. If you can consider that there are about 41542 stars in most galaxies, you start to get an understanding of how many stars that were known then.

These quotes will give you an idea of how the number of estimated galaxies has increased:

"Studies of distant space with optical and radio telescopes indicate that there may be about 100 billion galaxies in the universe." - World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 1997: 205.

"The latest estimates have ranged anywhere from ten billion to one hundred billion galaxies." - The Rebirth of Cosmology. New York: Knopf, 1976: 187.

"The Hubble Space Telescope has found there may be 125 billion galaxies in the universe." - Galaxy Estimate Up To 125 Billion. Far News. Far Shores. citation of South China Morning Post. 9 January 1999.

Now in fact, a german supercomputer estimates that there are probably 500 billion galaxies. If we take the number 40,000 stars per galaxy, that would make over 10 stars for every grain of sand on earth.

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