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from the too-many-for-finger-and-toe-counting dept.
A new estimate has found that the observable universe contains around 2 trillion galaxies, about ten times more than previously thought:
A new study from a team of international astronomers, led by astrophysicists from the University of Nottingham with support from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), has produced some astounding results: The universe contains at least two trillion galaxies, 10 times more than the highest previous estimates. What's more, the new study suggests that 90 percent of all galaxies are hidden from us, and only the remaining 10 percent can be seen at all, even with our most powerful telescopes. The paper detailing the study was published today in the Astrophysical Journal.
"We are missing the vast majority of galaxies because they are very faint and far away," said Nottingham Astrophysics Professor Christopher Conselice in an RAS press release. "The number of galaxies in the universe is a fundamental question in astronomy, and it boggles the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxies in the cosmos have yet to be studied. Who knows what interesting properties we will find when we study these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes?"
[...] Professor Conselice, in partnerships with researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Leiden University in the Netherlands, used Wilkinson's work and data from telescopes around the world, particularly Hubble, to create 3D maps of different parts of the universe. Mathematical analysis of the models using the calculated density of the galaxies and the volume for each mapped region of space allowed the researchers to deduce how many galaxies we are missing in our observations, and in turn, how many there are in total spread across the universe.
Hubble has an absolute magnitude limit of 31 while the James Webb Space Telescope's limit is expected to be 34, so it may spot a lot of these faint galaxies.
Also at Space.com.
The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at z
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @02:27PM
Queue idiot apologists proclaiming that "this still doesn't account for enough matter, and blah blah blah Dark Matter."
I'm fairly young, I expect by the time I expire we will finally conclude there is no Dark Matter, there is only matter we are too stupid to account for.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @02:59PM
That's actually a pretty good definition of dark matter.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 14 2016, @05:29PM
Dark matter "apologists" agree.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @03:18PM
Hey numbnuts, you really don't know anything about dark matter, do you? Like, the very reasons why it is postulated? It has nothing to do with galaxies that are too faint for us to see. Get half a clue first before trying to sound like you have anything of value to contribute to the conversation.
(Score: 4, Informative) by q.kontinuum on Friday October 14 2016, @04:51PM
Would be nicer to provide some digestible information [home.cern].
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @05:14PM
You want to queue them? What would they be waiting for?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @05:15PM
The evidence for dark matter rests on the behavior of matter within galaxies and clusters of galaxies, not on the total amount of matter in the Universe.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday October 14 2016, @05:31PM
On the other hand, we went from "hey, cute galaxy, must hold together with dark matter" to "there might be black holes near the middle" to "hey maybe supermassive black holes could be in the center of most galaxies" without any media explaining to the general (or even mildly scientific) public how adding that much gravity in the middle changed our understanding of dark matter.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Zz9zZ on Friday October 14 2016, @05:15PM
Fairly young people shouldn't go around calling people "idiot apologists" in general, especially since you don't understand the underlying concepts. Dark matter comes up because individual galaxies don't behave as we expect with the current theory of gravity, there is either a lot more "something" adding to the galactic gravitational pull or we have something fundamentally wrong in our equations. Since you missed the fact that this announcement has little or nothing to do with dark matter, please reevaluate how you approach (ehhh not sure what to call this situation) controversial topics.
~Tilting at windmills~