So many stars........sigh, how do you get your head 'round it?

Question

I read that there is at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy and at least another 100 billion galaxy's!! Wow! How do we comprehend that? I can't even begin to get my head round such a picture! Any help please?

Answer 1

Try and get your head around these facts:

1. Astronomers estimate that there are at least 70 sextillion (7×1022) stars in the known universe.[36] That is 230 billion times as many as the 300 billion in our own Milky Way.

2. The Sun (and therefore the Earth and Solar System) may be found close to the inner rim of the Orion Arm, in the Local Fluff, at a distance of 7.94±0.42 kpc from the Galactic Center.[10][11][12] The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years.[13] Our Sun, and thus the solar system, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone.

The Apex of the Sun's Way, or the solar apex, refers to the direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way. The general direction of the sun's galactic motion is towards the star Vega near the constellation of Hercules, at an angle of roughly 86 degrees to the direction of the Galactic Center. The sun's orbit around the galaxy is expected to be roughly elliptical with the addition of perturbations due to the galactic spiral arms and non-uniform mass distributions.

It takes the solar system about 225-250 million years to complete one orbit (a galactic year),[14] and so is thought to have completed about 20-25 orbits during its lifetime or .0008 orbit since the origin of man. The orbital speed of the solar system is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 light-year in ca. 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days

Answer 2

If you fill the back of a pickup truck with sand, you will have about 100 billion grains of sand. If you spread out that sand over a volume equal to that of the Earth, you could make a scale model of the Galaxy.

Answer 3

device Metallica King Crinsom - although i'm no longer too responsive to both U2 Nirvana The Beatles Mike Oldfield The Beastie Boys The Who - it really is a toughie, because i like them both! Rush AC/DC Jimi Hendrix chum Holly The bypass Gos New Order Chuck Berry The conflict Muse vs. The treatment ~> The treatment ftw! Smashing Pumpkins Jethro Tull

Answer 4

Picture a beach with lots of sand. Pick up a single speck of sand, and this is our sun. All the others still lying on the ground are the other suns in our own and other galaxies.

It's a lot and can get quite overwhelming sometimes. When that happens I just drop the sand speck... and go have a hot dog. :)

Answer 5

I just multiple 100 billion x 100 billion and take the result and go "Ohh... thats how many stars there are in the universe".

Answer 6

You can't. The numbers are too big to comprehend. They are astronomical. The best you can do is to "do the math". The trouble is that so many people are math-phobic. Those people will never get it.

Answer 7

just think like this for every grain of sand on planet earth ther are 3 galaxeys in every galaxey there are billions of stars.

Answer 8

You don't. But I suppose you could always try thinking about something else. An ever decreasing bank balance perhaps?

Answer 9

think of you. now think of how big tht is, you are nothing not even a speak of dust in comparison. none of us are

Answer 10

god you think big.you must remember we are only uman,try not to think of it as an amount.more of a just is..