Hubblecast 96: How many galaxies are there?

Since Edwin Hubble discovered that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the Universe astronomers try to find out how many of them are there. This new Hubblecast focusses on the question “How many galaxies are there?” including the new numbers achieved in 2016.

Credit:
Directed by: Mathias Jäger
Written by: Mathias Jäger, Eleanor Spring, Thomas Barratt
Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa
Images: NASA, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
Videos: NASA, ESA/Hubble
Animations: NASA, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada
Web and technical support: Mathias Andre and Raquel Yumi Shida
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

[robertschlesinger]

This excellent video is something to think about at several different levels. First, 1.2 trillion galaxies! What then are the chances of extraterrestrial lifeforms? Second, when my father was born (about 100 years ago), no other galaxies were known. Note how far the sciences have advanced in that time.

[lavianoantonio]

Love every astronomy’s documentary that’s been narrated by this lovely lady

[hussainali]

Thanks, for highly quality work, video and information

[ozdorothyfan]

When I was growing up there were an estimated 50 billion galaxies. The most recent estimate is two trillion and I expect that will continue rising as telescopes improve. Say an average 200 billion stars in each galaxy which is a relatively low guess. Say just an average 5 planets around each star which would give a trillion planets on average in a single galaxy . It's mind boggling.

[juanasenjo]

The universe is truly vast. We can see only up to when some of the first galaxies came to be. Others, likely billions more, are beyond our most powerful telescopes. Surely, when the James Webb space telescope comes into use, more ancient light will be detected but not necessarily all. There is a point where this light will never reach us. The universe's constant expansion will forever hide these distant objects from us. Mind blown.!

[xBloodXGusherx]

This music mixes so well. Makes me want to go back in time.

[johnroberts]

That sure is beautiful, looking at billions of galaxies ! 👍😃🌌📡🛰🔭

[peace]

Very nice Videos. Many thanks from Germany.

[m.vlachos]

Just In case anyone is interested.. the real question is not how many galaxies are there...but rather WHO IS the cause of all things created... (Isaiah 40:26, 28)

[christinebethencourt]

Thank you Hubble and all his engineers 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[rustyangel]

Way beyond our comprehension and yet here we are living in this marvelous blue marble in its perfect habitat for life to exist.

[hossintohidi]

It's very day more information than the day before....final I think there is no boundaries for univer....so never man can discover the entire

[fog]

There is no beggining and there is no end...never starts and never stops

[nobodysunderdog]

Come on, let's get the James Webb up and observing already!

[justaguyreal]

I get so astonished and mesmerized looking to the stars, the cosmos so vast, dark and beautiful, yet so bright to be near the stars. Trying to imagine and comprehend the distances between as i look to the night sky, bewildered and mind boggling. They're so bright and huge celestial bodies up close, yet mere glimmering specks of light to us being that they're so far away. And the fact of the time it takes the best seemingly instant light taking so many years to get here being onky few in small bubble area to us amongst the so many times more within the Galaxy. But even trying to imagine the distances and even greater numbers of galaxies simply within the 'visible' universe with many many times more than stars within our Galaxy and all galaxies. And the galaxies so big it's like they've been called 'island universes'.

[Ballr]

How many galaxies are there? Well, let's see, there's the Milky Way, the Snickers, the Three Musketeers...

[elie]

Ps 147:3-5: "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite."

[gueedsmaia]

Our spirits traveling through the universe is the truly paradise where we will trip at thought speed till we drop on a new Earth again for a new physical experience.

[jcevur]

For a concept of how many stars are in many of these galaxies, do a YT search for the term...Gigapixels of Andromeda [4K]
Probably one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen.

[Sdetton]

It's fascinating and also confusing. When they say there "are" possibly 10 times as many galaxies in the observable universe, they reference the galaxies that are the faintest, that is, the galaxies that existed at the earliest ages of the universe in the past. The video then mentions that the number of galaxies has drastically reduced today because of merging together. For all we know, all those galaxies that were extremely faint don't exist anymore since we see them as they were so long ago (some going as far back as 13 billion years ago). At least we can say that the actual number that exist within the bubble of the observable universe "today" is somewhere between this upper bound of 1 trillion+ galaxies and the lower bound of 100 billion galaxies. That is... if cosmic inflation or other factors don't skew this number even more than we can predict.

There are just so many more questions, but this is pretty awesome nonetheless!