Astronomers had estimated that there are about 200 billion galaxies in this universe. Latest research shows that the real number could be ten times more.
The Universe is a big place, and with each passing year, we are discovering new things about the cosmos. Recent studies have shown that the Universe 10 times more galaxies than previously thought of. One of the many questions which have baffled science is just how many galaxies the universe contains. Astronomers had estimated that there are about 200 billion galaxies in this universe. Latest research shows that the real number could be ten times more.
This conclusion was made by researchers from the University of Nottingham in Britain. Using deep space images taken by NASA’s Hubble space telescope and published data from other teams, they converted images into 3D to precisely measure the number of galaxies in the different era in the cosmos history.
They also employed the latest mathematical models who helped them to know the existence of galaxies which the present crop of telescopes cannot observe. It led them to conclude that after adding the numbers and the mass of all the galaxies which they see there are another 90% of galaxies in the observable universe which are too faint to be observed by present day telescopes.
These smaller galaxies born in the early universe merged over the time to form larger galaxies which we cannot observe. It is interesting to know that 90% of the galaxies have still not been studied. These faint galaxies could be seen by the upcoming Webb Space Telescope.
Researchers explain that the decreasing numbers of galaxies as the time flows happens due to the mergers between them and this could also answer the Olber’s paradox which was first formulated in 1800 by the famous German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers who contended that how could the sky become dark if there are an infinite number of stars?