RE: Total stars in Universe is rougly equal to the total number (ever) of human cells.
April 29, 2018 at 10:14 am
The universe?
We have no ideal how big the universe is. So there is no basis to estimate how many stars there are in it. It could well be infinite.
We may estimate how many stars are in the observable part of the universe. But that number is constantly being decreased as accelerting expansion of the universe continues to push galaxies and stars near the edge of our observable universe outside of our observation horizon.
Furthermore, it is thought that the rate of new star formation in the visible universe peaked 7 billion years ago, long before the sun formed. The rate of new star formation now is only a fraction of the peak, as most of available gas and dust needed for star formation is already used up. So new star formation within our visible horizon can’t keep pace with stars lost to the observable universe due to cosmic expansion. I don’t know the precise figure, but I would not be surprised if the visible universe is already losing stars much faster than it is making new ones.
We have no ideal how big the universe is. So there is no basis to estimate how many stars there are in it. It could well be infinite.
We may estimate how many stars are in the observable part of the universe. But that number is constantly being decreased as accelerting expansion of the universe continues to push galaxies and stars near the edge of our observable universe outside of our observation horizon.
Furthermore, it is thought that the rate of new star formation in the visible universe peaked 7 billion years ago, long before the sun formed. The rate of new star formation now is only a fraction of the peak, as most of available gas and dust needed for star formation is already used up. So new star formation within our visible horizon can’t keep pace with stars lost to the observable universe due to cosmic expansion. I don’t know the precise figure, but I would not be surprised if the visible universe is already losing stars much faster than it is making new ones.
