how many stars are there? in space i mean, not in hollywood?

Answer 1

946,854,768,094,988,998,444,973,068,887,878,001

Answer 2

Look into the sky on a clear night, out of the glare of streetlights, and you will see a few thousand individual stars with your naked eyes. With even a modest amateur telescope, millions more will come into view.
So how many stars are there in the Universe? It is easy to ask this question, but difficult for scientists to give a fair answer!

Stars are not scattered randomly through space, they are gathered together into vast groups known as galaxies. The Sun belongs to a galaxy called the Milky Way. Astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone. Outside that, there are millions upon millions of other galaxies also!




Hipparcos mapped millions of stars in our galaxy, but how many more are there?
It has been said that counting the stars in the Universe is like trying to count the number of sand grains on a beach on Earth. We might do that by measuring the surface area of the beach, and determining the average depth of the sand layer.

If we count the number of grains in a small representative volume of sand, by multiplication we can estimate the number of grains on the whole beach.

For the Universe, the galaxies are our small representative volumes, and there are something like 1011 to 1012 stars in our galaxy, and there are perhaps something like 1011 or 1012 galaxies.

With this simple calculation you get something like 1022 to 1024 stars in the Universe. This is only a rough number, as obviously not all galaxies are the same, just like on a beach the depth of sand will not be the same in different places.

No one would try to count stars individually, instead we measure integrated quantitites like the number and luminosity of galaxies. ESA's infrared space observatory Herschel, to be launched in 2007, will make an important contribution by 'counting' galaxies in the infrared, and measuring their luminosity in this range - something never before attempted.

Knowing how fast stars form can bring more certainty to calculations. Herschel will also chart the 'formation rate' of stars throughout cosmic history. If you can estimate the rate at which stars have formed, you will be able to estimate how many stars there are in the Universe today.





Herschel's telescope will collect infrared radiation from distant stars
In 1995, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) suggested that star formation had reached a peak at roughly seven thousand million years ago. Recently, however, astronomers have thought again.

The Hubble Deep Field image was taken at optical wavelengths and there is now some evidence that a lot of early star formation was hidden by thick dust clouds. Dust clouds block the stars from view and convert their light into infrared radiation, making them invisible to the HST.

Herschel is designed to view exactly the time in the evolution of the Universe, at the right wavelengths where it is thought the majority of the obscured star formation can be seen.

So with Herschel, astronomers will see many more stars than before. We will be one step closer to provide a more reliable estimate to that question asked so often in the past - "How many stars are there?"

Answer 3

Unknown. In our galaxy there are between 200-400 billion stars. Beyond our galaxy there are billions upon billions of other galaxies. Our observable universe only extends to about 14 billion light years out because the Big Bang happened about 14 billion years ago, so anything beyond that can't be seen -- its light hasn't reached us yet.

Answer 4

In our galaxy alone (considered comparitively small) there are anywhere between 4 and 100 billion stars. And there are billions upon billions of other galaxies - most much larger.

Far too many for a mere human brain to comprehend.

Answer 5

About 3 to 5x10^22 in the observable universe and a no doubt much larger number in the rest.

Answer 6

A research group not long ago estimated that there are at least 70-SEXTILLION stars in the known universe.

Answer 7

This is actually a joke in spanish, the answer is "cinquenta" which is pronounced the same as "sin cuenta". Cinquenta means fifty, where sin cuenta means without count.

Answer 8

Billions and Billions, no one knows the exact number.....More than you could count in a lifetime.

Answer 9

there is only 7! the fact that we see so many is an optical illusion made by earths atmosphere!

Answer 10

Impossible to know

Answer 11

as many grains of sand on all the beaches on earth