TJ Cline

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Ever wanted to wish upon a star? Well, you have 70,000 million million million to choose from.
That's the total number of stars in the known universe, according to a study by Australian astronomers.
It's also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts.
The figure -- 7 followed by 22 zeros or, more accurately, 70 sextillion -- was calculated by a team of stargazers based at the Australian National University.
Speaking at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union meeting in Sydney, Dr Simon Driver said the number was drawn up based on a survey of one strip of sky, rather than trying to count every individual star.
The team used two of the world's most powerful telescopes, one at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in northern New South Wales state and one in the Canary Islands, to carry out their survey.
Within the strip of sky some 10,000 galaxies were pinpointed and detailed measurements of their brightness taken to calculate how many stars they contained.
A whole lot of zeros


That number was then multiplied by the number of similar sized strips needed to cover the entire sky, Driver said, and then multiplied again out to the edge of the visible universe.
He said there were likely many million more stars in the universe but the 70 sextillion figure was the number visible within range of modern telescopes.
The actual number of stars could be infinite he said.
The universe is so big light from the other side of the universe "hasn't reached us yet," The Age newspaper quoted him as saying.
Asked if he believed the huge scale of the universe meant there was intelligent life out there somewhere, he told the paper: "Seventy thousand million million million is a big number ... it's inevitable."


http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/

topolo

myCATpowerlifts

There's only one star in this universe, the sun.
The galaxy however, is a different story.

topolo

still gay..............

TJ Cline

Close but no cigar son...


The term universe has a variety of meanings based on the context in which it is described. In materialist philosophical terms, the universe is the summation of all particles that exist and the space in which all events occur which has an equivalent idea amongst some theoretical scientists known as the total universe. In cosmological terms, the universe is thought to be a finite or infinite space-time continuum in which all matter and energy exist. (It has been hypothesized by some scientists that the universe may be part of a system of many other universes, known as the multiverse.) The terms known universe, observable universe, or visible universe are often used to describe the part of the universe that can be seen or otherwise observed by humanity. Due to the fact that cosmic inflation removes vast parts of the total universe from our observable horizon, most cosmologists currently accept that it is impossible to observe the whole continuum and may use our universe, referring only to that knowable by human

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

aceshigh

yeah this is one of you gheyer threads foreman,,,,,next u will be talking about star trek

maniclion

The Milky Way has 400 Billion stars give or take, the universe includes a number of equal, less or greater galaxies than our own so I would say the universe is bigger.

Nate K

Not gay...good stuff.

greekblondechic

I liked it.

I can do it

I WILL be a size 5.

BigDyl

i'd like to experience the 70 sextillion stars with you.............


...without the tillion.

Total ownage.