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New study claims there are 20 times more galaxies than originally thought in universe

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XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a23361/universe-20-times-more-galaxies/

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, 20 times as many as previously thought. 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?"

For two decades, astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Deep Field images to try to estimate the number of galaxies in the observable universe. The previous estimate was 100 billion, and now we believe that huge number was too small by a factor of 20.
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The results in the new study are the culmination of 15 years of work. An initial grant from the RAS allowed undergrad student Aaron Wilkinson, now a phD student at Nottingham University, to perform initial galaxy-counting analysis work that laid the foundation for the larger study.

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.

In addition to pinning down a total number, the study analyzed the number of galaxies that were present in the distant past compared to the number of galaxies that exist now. By peering 13 billion light-years into the past, shortly after the Big Bang, the researchers found that there were 10 times more galaxies in the ancient universe than there are now (most of which were small—about the size of the satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way).

"This is very surprising as we know that, over the 13.7 billion years of cosmic evolution since the Big Bang, galaxies have been growing through star formation and mergers with other galaxies. Finding more galaxies in the past implies that significant evolution must have occurred to reduce their number through extensive merging of systems."

That "significant evolution" is the continuous merging of smaller galaxies into the larger ones we see today, and the new model could help researchers piece together the formation story of the modern universe with greater accuracy than ever before.

The sheer difference in the number of galaxies has far-reaching implications as well. Probabilistic equations that estimate the number of hypothetical alien civilizations, such as the Drake Equation, will need to be modified to account for the dramatic increase in the number of estimated galaxies out there—which makes it even more astronomically unlikely that we are alone among intelligent species.
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S

Sajjaja

Member
There's a weird feeling when you realize how insignificant everyones existance is. We're all just less than microscopic pigments in space lol.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
At this point you could probably do a ban bet with GAF that there has to be life somewhere out there. It's a shame most of us will be long dead before we can truly explore space, but long live GAF. Heck at the rate we're going the whole humam race and earth might be gone before man can really explore and possibly travel.

To get serious and dark, most of us were born in the right generation to get teased about space, but a bit too soon to really see the fruits of technogical advances allow us to examine space more closely.
 
Mikey Jr.

Mikey Jr.

Member
Audioboxer said:
At this point you could probably do a ban bet with GAF that there has to be life somewhere out there. It's a shame most of us will be long dead before we can truly explore space. Heck at the rate we're going the whole humam race and earth might be gone.

To get serious and dark, most of us were born in the right generation to get teased about space, but a bit too soon to really see the fruits of technogical advances allow us to examine space more closely.
Click to expand...

I 100% believe that is intelligent life out there. Much much much more intelligent than we are.
 
N

N.Domixis

Banned
There exists a place that can contain perhaps trillions of galaxies that can range anywhere from hundreds of thousands of light years across. Holy shit
 
Shadow Broker

Shadow Broker

Banned
Holy... shiii...


Don't worry yall, with all those galaxy, stars, and exo planets there's no way there's alien life forms. We are alone. It's safe, put away your tin foil hat.


what I wouldn't give to travel the stars and interact with alien life forms intelligent or not.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Mikey Jr. said:
I 100% believe that is intelligent life out there. Much much much more intelligent than we are.
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I don't know if I'd say that. I'd be more comfortable just settling on life of some sort. However who knows, to think we hit the jackpot and are the most evolved lifeforms so far is to stare into the abyss of potential ignorance.
 
A

Alcotholic

Banned
57b.jpg

Jesus can't be god's only son. He has to have other sons too... right?
Why is earth so special if that was the case?
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
James Webb is being put up to detect really distant and faint galaxies, no? Perhaps we'll get more information, and an even better estimate then.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Also as usual reading stuff about space before going to bed is a sureshot way to get your mind doing spasms.

Can't comprehend the vastness...
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Mousnis said:
Has anyone ever tried to comprehend the size of the universe? It can drive you mad.
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It deals in the kinds of numbers you see and just think naaaah that's not real, that's what happens when you button mash on a calculator and hit the equals key.

And then science tells you it is real and you suddenly feel so insignificant.
 
B

bsp

Member
Extollere said:
James Webb is being put up to detect really distant and faint galaxies, no? Perhaps we'll get more information, and an even better estimate then.
Click to expand...

It will be able to see first light from the earliest moments of the universe, like the first formations of galaxies as gravity finally started to clump stuff together, so it should also be able to see fainter objects.
 
C

Chichikov

Member
zma1013 said:
Why don't we have like 20 Hubbles in space? Funding?
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I think we should be spending way more on space exploration, but we are getting much improved capabilities with James Webb, due to lunch in two years.

bn81Vsc.jpg


1DGT2b5.jpg


Looks badass too. We're sending it beyond the moon, most likely to make invading aliens think we got a super space laser.

p.s.
Yeah, congress almost killed it.
 
P

pswii60

Member
somecrazymember said:
'The universe is INFINITE! ... But yeah around 200billion galaxies'
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But how many universes? And are universes in a bubble galaxy of their own? And is that bubble galaxy part of something bigger again?

Space is a great cure for anxiety, you realise just how utterely insignificant all your worries are.
 
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