Just curious. . . . how many stars are there?

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-02-22 01:01pm

Just curious, what is the theorized number of stars there are in our universe?

Thanks.

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2006-02-22 01:09pm

Roughly 10^24

According to these folks:

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM75BS1VED_index_0.html

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2006-02-22 02:35pm

IIRC, the number of stars visible to the human eye from any given hemisphere of the Earth during night is roughly seven thousand or so. Don't quote me on that, though...

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2006-02-22 02:36pm

If the universe has no bound, then infinite.

You asked theoretically...

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2006-02-22 02:49pm

Bertie Wooster wrote:Roughly 10^24

According to these folks:

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM75BS1VED_index_0.html

Note that's given as the high end figure, though.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2006-02-22 03:11pm

Bertie Wooster wrote:Roughly 10^24

According to these folks:

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM75BS1VED_index_0.html

I couldn't tell from the article if that was only observable galaxies, or a projected figure of galaxies for the entire universe.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-02-22 04:05pm

Okay, so we have a couple of "ballpark" numbers ranging from 7,000 (visible from terra firma) to as much as 10^24.

The reason why I ask is that, in the OT, God asked if Abraham could count the stars in the sky, . . . so would his decendence be. So if that meant the visible stars that can be seen from the earth, . . . . . not a very impressive number. If it is all the stars, . . . . . . is that even possible? I know there are some 6 billion people on earth, but it seems unlikely that there have been 10^24 number of people who have lived (according to the YEC people) for the past 6,000 years!

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-02-22 04:16pm

Well, using that tack, you won't get very far. After all, Christians, Muslims, and Jews consider themselves spritual descendants of Abraham, thus they be able to block your point by pointing out that Abraham's line has not yet ceased, or alternately by stating that this was mere hyperbole.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-02-22 05:39pm

However, we could, using a logistics equation, derive when Armageddon will occur! Since 10^24 appears to be the upper limit, there can be no more than 1e24 descendents of Abraham; thus, at that point, God will return. How long do we have?

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-02-22 05:52pm

Surlethe wrote:However, we could, using a logistics equation, derive when Armageddon will occur! Since 10^24 appears to be the upper limit, there can be no more than 1e24 descendents of Abraham; thus, at that point, God will return. How long do we have?

Good thinking, Surlethe! Someone do the math!

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-02-22 05:53pm

Surlethe wrote:However, we could, using a logistics equation, derive when Armageddon will occur! Since 10^24 appears to be the upper limit, there can be no more than 1e24 descendents of Abraham; thus, at that point, God will return. How long do we have?

Impossible to calculate as the further down we go the family tree the more descendents of Abraham there are in a single generation.
Add the fact that the number of descendents in any given family is not fixed...
Assuming 20 years per generation, that every generation was 6 billion people (which is patently untrue) AND that every single human being on Earth is a descendent of Abraham I get three and a third quadrillion years from Abraham becoming a daddy. So it seems that even if creationists are right about the age of Earth we have a little time left.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-02-22 05:53pm

There are about 10^11 stars in an average galaxy like our own, and there are at least that number of galaxies in the universe as well that have been observed, so that gives roughly 10^24.

KG

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2006-02-22 10:00pm

I remember reading that the estimation of the number of people who have ever lived is 36 billion. That means 1/6th of the people who have ever lived are currently alive.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2006-02-22 10:09pm

No, I was mistaken. It was 1/6th of the people who have lived in the last 6,000 years, not all time.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2006-02-23 02:19am

Zadius wrote:No, I was mistaken. It was 1/6th of the people who have lived in the last 6,000 years, not all time.

Michael Shermer threw 100 billion around in one of his "Skeptic" articles in Scientific American.

Raw Shark · Post by **Raw Shark** » 2006-02-23 04:13am

Magnetic wrote:Okay, so we have a couple of "ballpark" numbers ranging from 7,000 (visible from terra firma) to as much as 10^24.

The reason why I ask is that, in the OT, God asked if Abraham could count the stars in the sky, . . . so would his decendence be. So if that meant the visible stars that can be seen from the earth, . . . . . not a very impressive number. If it is all the stars, . . . . . . is that even possible?

I don't have a Bible in front of me, but my 'gut reaction' to that passage is that the answer to God's rhetorical question was meant to be "No, Abraham, you can't count them all. So will your descendents be." I know, I know, where's the fun in that. On with the calcs.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-02-23 09:25am

Raw Shark wrote:
Magnetic wrote:Okay, so we have a couple of "ballpark" numbers ranging from 7,000 (visible from terra firma) to as much as 10^24.

The reason why I ask is that, in the OT, God asked if Abraham could count the stars in the sky, . . . so would his decendence be. So if that meant the visible stars that can be seen from the earth, . . . . . not a very impressive number. If it is all the stars, . . . . . . is that even possible?
I don't have a Bible in front of me, but my 'gut reaction' to that passage is that the answer to God's rhetorical question was meant to be "No, Abraham, you can't count them all. So will your descendents be." I know, I know, where's the fun in that. On with the calcs.

Correct. . . the answer to the rhetorical would be, in fact, "no." But if the "so shall your decendents be" was NOT rhetorical, then we have a problem in terms of numbers . . . . . .both ways (whether visible stars, or all of the stars).

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2006-02-24 08:40am

kheegan wrote:There are about 10^11 stars in an average galaxy like our own, and there are at least that number of galaxies in the universe as well that have been observed, so that gives roughly 10^24.

KG

It may be closer to 10^12, but our galaxy is a giant among giants in that regard. The number of galaxies is way into the Lots range:

I do remember a bit of commentary that the Hubble Photo of the Tadpole galaxy revealed over six thousand new galaxies, and the image itself covered a total area of about a tentth of the Moon.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-02-24 01:37pm

Xeriar wrote:
I do remember a bit of commentary that the Hubble Photo of the Tadpole galaxy revealed over six thousand new galaxies, and the image itself covered a total area of about a tentth of the Moon.

You probably mean the Hubble Deep Field:

TheBlackCat · Post by **TheBlackCat** » 2006-02-24 02:10pm

Elheru Aran wrote:IIRC, the number of stars visible to the human eye from any given hemisphere of the Earth during night is roughly seven thousand or so. Don't quote me on that, though...

I always heard it was 8,000 total in both hemisphere on a dark, moonless night with no ambient light nearby. That would be 4000 per hemisphere, far less if there is any other sort of illumination nearby.