How vast is the universe? How many galaxies are there? And how many milky ways are there?

Answer 1

In strictly physical terms, the total universe is the sum of all matter that exists and the space in which all events occur or could occur. The part of the universe that can be seen or otherwise observed to have occurred is called the known universe, observable universe, or visible universe. Because cosmic inflation removes vast parts of the total universe from our observable horizon, most cosmologists accept that it is impossible to observe the whole continuum and may use the expression our universe, referring to only that which is knowable by human beings in particular. In cosmological terms, the universe is thought to be a finite or infinite space-time continuum in which all matter and energy exist. Some scientists hypothesize that the universe may be part of a system of many other universes, known as the multiverse.



Galaxy, a massive ensemble of hundreds of millions of stars, all gravitationally interacting, and orbiting about a common center. Astronomers estimate that there are about 125 billion galaxies in the universe.

Milky Way, the large, disk-shaped aggregation of stars, or galaxy, that includes the Sun and its solar system. In addition to the Sun, the Milky Way contains about 400 billion other stars. There are hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the universe, some of which are much larger and contain many more stars than the Milky Way.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558916/Milky_Way.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

Answer 2

Your Questions...

1.) How vast is the universe?
Depends upon what you call the universe. If you mean everything that is out there, all inclusive, it is extremely huge, measureing thousands of light years and it is difficult to try and describe in meaning ful terms.

2.) Besides our Milky Way Galaxy (Capital "G") there are thousands, perhaps even several million, other galaxies (small "g"), each of which contain billions of stars.

3.) There is only one galaxy named the Milky Way.

Answer 3

The universe is fairly vast. There are 420 galaxies and 69 milky ways.

Answer 4

The Universe (i.e. matter, not just empty space) is very big, from our perspective, but not infinite. Ours is only one of billions of parallel Universes.

Rather than the BIG BANG, I believe in the BIG PLOP. Imagine a pond filled with a super-suspension of qauntum particles. You drop a big pebble in the pond and the energy from the resulting waves causes matter (as we know it) to precipitate out of this "quantum soup".

This causes our physical universe to appear to be expanding and also accounts for the background radiation we see. It also accounts for the "globby" nature of our Universe much moreso that a "big bang" explosive type explanation would.

Anyway, this goes on until the energy wave eventually runs out of gas. This means that although our "physical" Universe is quite large, it has an edge - and after that, just more un-precipitated quantum soup, or from our perspective - nothing.

The "pebble-in-the-pond" was caused by two MEMBRANES colliding in 11 dimensions. I know that sounds complex and it kind of is, but that's how it all works IMHO.

Answer 5

the vastness of the universe is limited by our capabilities to see the edges, i.e. the universe is all we see/measure, there may be more out there. There are said to be 100 billion accounted galaxies in our universe, and there is only one milky way, and thats where we live.

Answer 6

Which Universe?There are 500,654,123,001 Galaxies, And there are about 400 billion milky ways, actualy make that 399 billion, cause i just ate one....did i mention Im a Rocket Surgeon? :D

Answer 7

milky ways is the galaxies name, where our earth comes, where we live.

and in one galaxies store have about 11 to the power of 10 stars

and total no of galaxies is 11 to the power of 10

to tala no of start about 22 to the power of 10.

about : 10,0000...22 zeros

thank you

Answer 8

TOO VAST TO COMPREHEND OR EVEN FORM A VIABLE EQUTION FOR, AND NEW GALAXIES BEING CREATED EVERY SECOND !, TO REPLACE THE FIVE DESTROYED OR DYING ! TO MAINTAIN BALANCE, AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GALAXIES COLLIDE WITH EACH OTHER OR ARE SUCKED BACK INTO A BLACK HOLE , AS RAW MATERIAL TO CREATE A NEW GALAXY IN THE FUTURE !

Answer 9

it's so big you can not even imagine how big it is, and nobody knows how many galaxies there are

Answer 10

Those are questions I think about often and they make my head spin. The universe is something that our minds cannot comprehend :o\