The Sombrero Galaxy – 28 million light years from Earth – was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.
----------
This is a huge one! An average galaxy has approx. 100 billion stars on the counter.
That is a beauty!
ReplyDelete800 Billion suns? How is that even possible??
ReplyDeleteIt's 8 times bigger than an average galaxy...A whopper..
ReplyDelete<span>Our galaxy the Milky Way is 100 billion stars/suns strong.. Just imagine if only 1% have a planetary system like ours that would make one billion potential planetary system in our galaxy. Now imagine if only one out of ten suns harbors life like in the case of our planet that would make 100 million potential "earths"! In the case of the Sombrero galaxy that would be 800 million planets with a potential to harbor life. For a more consevative estimater divide that by 100 just to play it on the safe side that would make one million earths!! And that's in our galaxy alone! Knowing that there are approx. 100 billion galaxies in the Universe, multiply the number by one million, you get (1000000 times 100, 000,000,000) 100000000000000000 earths which could be harboring life in the Universe in a very conservative estimate! </span>
ReplyDeleteJust in case we think we're something very special!
<span>"800 Billion suns? How is that even possible??"</span>
ReplyDelete<span></span>
<span>I want to know who counted them, and how many times did they lose count and have to start again.</span>
Jemmy..It's not how astronomers count stars..I don't know what the exact technique used but counting huge numbers in nature is like counting, say, protesters in a demonstrartion. You count the numbers in a small area say 10 metres square and extrapolate to the larger area..
ReplyDeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteOnly joking, TG, but with a touch of scepticism* about such numbers. Your reference to demo numbers confirms my suspicion. British media always publish police estimates of demonstrator numbers, which no-one else believes.
ReplyDelete*Or skepticism, if you will.