how many stars are there in the universe?

Question

to the question of "How many stars are in the universe." The answer that people give (an average of 100billion stars x 100billion galaxies) differs from
that which I found in the paper written by Dr. Gerald B. Cleaver of Baylor
University, published at
http://www.metanexus.net/conferences/pdf/conference2006/Cleaver.pdf

Dr. Cleaver posits that there are a trillion galaxies, with the average
galaxy containing a trillion stars.

Both of those answers were given in the year 2006. My question is whether
there is unanimity among physicists as to this matter.

Answer 1

Perhaps this higher estimate is based on some evidence that there are far more hard-to-see brown dwarfs than previously estimated?

[REPOST] Okay, I took a look at the paper - he says "roughly", and in astronomical scales, "roughly" can be considered to be say maybe 1 or 2 orders of magnitude, which his statement meets as being near current estimates.

Answer 2

For all you know, i could be a 48 year old astrologist. And you would partially agree with whatever i said. No one will ever know the answer to this. It's basically asking how many grains of sand are there on every beach. 1: It changes every day. AND 2: No one sane would actually make an effort to count every grain of sand.

The question is, why do you even ask?

Answer 3

No, there isn't. But, in either case, you're talking about a total 'disagreement' of 6 orders of magnititude out of 10^18 or 10^24. Either way, it's still a sh|tload of stars ☺

Doug

Answer 4

no one will ever know because we dont know the exact size of the entire universe, we can only predict based on the "observable" universe which is limited by speed of light...so for all we know what we "see" of the universe is all of it or only 1% of it

Answer 5

They can never make up there mind. Dont worry about crap like this. Live your life. When you die you can then start worrying about useless crap like space science.

Answer 6

Nobody knows. Too many...