The Universe is bigger than was thought.

[LastPoet]

I'm not surprised one bit.  It's incredible though

Imagine how ants feel. Haha they are little.

[abaris]

Is anyone really surprised by this:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive...s/2016/39/

Still incredible.

The observable universe is the operative word here. What we can and possibly will observe at some point in time. That in itself doesn't say anything on how big the universe really is and if it could be infinite.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Is anyone really surprised by this:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive...s/2016/39/

Still incredible.

The observable universe is the operative word here. What we can and possibly will observe at some point in time. That in itself doesn't say anything on how big the universe really is and if it could be infinite.

Something I heard recently: The unobservable universe is to the observable universe as the observable universe is to a marble. 

I pulled the covers over my head at that point.

[Casca]

One thing that intrigues me (other than potential extraterrestrial life), is not just the possible physical differences between planets and star systems from the Milky Way- but how dark matter/energy forces may differ, how gravity and magnetic forces may differ, and the overall structures that could arise when there is such a vast variety of galaxies out there.

[Arkilogue]

Soooo...a trillion galaxies, is what they're saying? Good fucking gawd.

In just out little bubble of observability within the total universe.

[Whateverist]

So the estimated number of galaxies in the universe is up from 10^11 to 10^12. Hard to imagine that there is a lot more variety in that extra 900,000,000,000 galaxies we'd previously been in the dark about. Even if they were chock full of nuance lacking in the other 100,000,000,000 we already knew of, it isn't as though we're in any position to probe them to learn what that may be.

Sincerely,

a wet blanket

[downbeatplumb]

"The Universe is bigger than was thought"

I always thought it was quite big.
I mean I don't expect I could eat a whole one.

[Alex K]

Is anyone really surprised by this:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive...s/2016/39/

Still incredible.

The observable universe is the operative word here. What we can and possibly will observe at some point in time. That in itself doesn't say anything on how big the universe really is and if it could be infinite.

Exactly. The entire thing could be infinitely large for all we know. In any case, its size need not be related to the size of the observable universe because there is no reason why it should be anywhere near it, so it could be anything really, likely many orders of magnitude larger.

[Jehanne]

The observable universe is the operative word here. What we can and possibly will observe at some point in time. That in itself doesn't say anything on how big the universe really is and if it could be infinite.

Something I heard recently: The unobservable universe is to the observable universe as the observable universe is to a marble. 

I pulled the covers over my head at that point.

The ratio that I heard was to a proton, but we're likely splitting hairs at this point!

[Jehanne]

The observable universe is the operative word here. What we can and possibly will observe at some point in time. That in itself doesn't say anything on how big the universe really is and if it could be infinite.

Exactly. The entire thing could be infinitely large for all we know. In any case, its size need not be related to the size of the observable universe because there is no reason why it should be anywhere near it, so it could be anything really, likely many orders of magnitude larger.

Sky & Telescope has a great, but sobering, article on this:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy...-galaxies/

May have been a little media hype on this one.