Jay-qu Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 ok a really stupid question that wouldnt really be answerable but how many stars in the sky? if space goes on foreva - that does mean that matter and hence galaxies go on forever so there would be a finite amount... right? how bout an easier question - how many stars are in our galaxy? Quote
Qfwfq Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 how many stars are in our galaxy?I would reckon something in the order of 10^12, maybe a few more orders of magnitude but I wouldn't think much more than around 10^15. Does "in the sky" mean in the universe or how many could ever be distinguished? In the latter case the answer would be less than there are in this galaxy. In the former, It depends on what the overall universe is like and we don't know for sure. Quote
Jay-qu Posted July 5, 2005 Author Report Posted July 5, 2005 yeah in the sky was a stupid thing to say, and in the universe is an impossible question... so 10^15, 1,000,000,000,000,000 :) thats a few and we dont even have a particularly large galaxy... Quote
Tormod Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 ok a really stupid question that wouldnt really be answerable but how many stars in the sky? if space goes on foreva - that does mean that matter and hence galaxies go on forever so there would be a finite amount... right? how bout an easier question - how many stars are in our galaxy? It is not a stupid question, Jay-qu, but I think we'd have to limit the estimates to the observable universe. I have heard all kinds of estimates, usually very round and nice. For example, 200 billion galaxies with 200 billion stars in each...or half that, or double that. Any which way the number is propably around 4x10^23 or something in that area. :) Quote
Jay-qu Posted July 5, 2005 Author Report Posted July 5, 2005 wow, thats crazy... 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 still thats less atoms than is in 1 mole of substance, haha! and half that or double that - that quite a large error range... +100% - 50% but i forgive them it would be hard to calculate... Quote
UncleAl Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 You can eyeball about 5000 stars in clear desert sky when Sagittarius is overhead. For the total number of stars, first - how much matter must be apportioned? http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403292http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310723 WMAP + Sloane Digital Sky Surveyhttp://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0404175 Dark matter candidateshttp://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March01/Carroll/frames.html Carroll on what it all means. Second - how is the distribution weighted into stars? Google"Hertzsprung-Russell diagram" 36,000 hitsGoogle Images"Hertzsprung-Russell diagram" 329 hits Third - do the math. Can you handle arithmetic? Interstellar dust, gas, planetary systems, small debris... is small stuff to your desired degree of accuracy. That calculates the number of stars in your light cone. If you want to know the number of stars in a given galaxy, google it. Quote
Little Bang Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 Thereare approximately 300,000,000,000 in the Milky Way. Quote
EWright Posted July 16, 2005 Report Posted July 16, 2005 Thereare approximately 300,000,000,000 in the Milky Way. Little bang is much closer on this one. Jayqu, where did you get your figure? Quote
Jay-qu Posted July 16, 2005 Author Report Posted July 16, 2005 i only repeated what others said in this forum, but from what i gather there is a large margin of error - what makes u think little bang is so accurate Quote
UncleAl Posted July 16, 2005 Report Posted July 16, 2005 i only repeated what others said in this forum, but from what i gather there is a large margin of error - what makes u think little bang is so accurate http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403292http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310723WMAP + Sloane Digital Sky Survey http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0404175Dark matter candidates http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/leve...oll/frames.htmlCarroll on what it all means. Quote
EWright Posted July 16, 2005 Report Posted July 16, 2005 Pull your thumb out of your butt, screw your butt into a chair, and read. Do you enjoy being a public embarassment? (Learn how to write literate English, too.)Carroll on what it all means. :) Wow, I usually have no idea what Unc just said once I read it, but I understood that one! :) Quote
Jay-qu Posted July 19, 2005 Author Report Posted July 19, 2005 i wasnt embarresed untill you made that comment... I came to this forum to learn, not to be ridculed for asking innocent questions... Quote
Little Bang Posted July 19, 2005 Report Posted July 19, 2005 Jay-qu, Unc has to be taken with a grain of salt. Quote
Aki Posted July 21, 2005 Report Posted July 21, 2005 Uncle Al, as an older member of the forum, you should be showing more respect towards other members. I edited your post; I got rid of the unnecessary comments. Quote
Racoon Posted April 25, 2006 Report Posted April 25, 2006 I was thinking of this same question here late this eveneing and early morning; I couldn't sleep just wondering. :) How many stars are there?? I'm glad I searched thoroughly through this forum before I decided to start another thread. :hihi: Thats a LOT OF STARS!It boggles my mind. :cup: Quote
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