SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by frojack on Friday October 14 2016, @09:38PM
Another aspect of this story which the linked source does not do justice to is that the speed of light limits our event horizon far more than inadequate optics. Source. [gizmodo.com]
The observable universe—that is, the part of the universe that’s visible to us on Earth—contains 10 to 20 times as many galaxies than previous estimates.
...
And that’s just within the observable universe. Because the cosmos emerged some 13.8 billion years ago, we’re only able to observe objects up to a certain distance from Earth. Anything outside this “Hubble Bubble” is invisible to us because the light from these distant objects simply haven’t had enough time to reach us. It’s difficult—if not impossible—to know how many galaxies reside outside this cosmological blind spot.
Its not clear from any of the stories published on this issue just what percentage of these 10 or 20 times more galaxies are due to better optics as opposed to the event horizon being pushed out spherically by the speed of light with each passing year. A light year added to the edge of said sphere encompasses an enormous area.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 15 2016, @01:30AM
I thought that was common knowledge *snicker*.
Anyway, I made sure to specify "observable universe" in the summary. And I skimmed through the arxiv paper to confirm these details.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]