Is the Universe too big, or are we too small? What’s for sure is that scientists still have a lot to learn about nature, and whether we like it or not, that’s exactly the beauty of science.
Astronomers estimate that there are about two trillion galaxies in the entire observable Universe, according to a 2016 study. The more astronomers look into the Cosmos, there more galaxies they see, not to mention that the entire Cosmos could be much larger than what astronomers call “the Observable Universe”.
Thanks to SciTechDaily, we have a spectacular image of two beautiful galaxies spotted by the Hubble Telescope in the Perseus galaxy cluster, meaning approximately 350 million light-years away from Earth:
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Harris, Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
The galaxy from the left is known by the name of 2MASX J03193743+4137580, while the one from the right carries the moniker of UGC 2665.
Perseus is among the most massive cosmic objects in the Universe
The Perseus cluster, which is also known as Abell 426, is one of the most massive objects discovered, and it contains thousands of galaxies across a vast cloud of gas. The cluster reaches a recession speed of 5,366 km/s.
The observable part of the Universe is known to have around 96 billion light-years in diameter, and although it sounds like an unfathomably huge distance, it could pale compared to the size of the entire Universe. If the Cosmos is indeed much bigger than what telescopes could see, it could take billions of years until the light from the most distant regions will reach us so that astronomers would be able to see something. Who knows how many more jaw-dropping clusters of galaxies could exist at the edges of the Universe!
While the bad news is that most probably, most of us won’t be around to find out what exists beyond the observable Universe, the good news is that it should be only a matter of time until astronomers will come with some irrefutable answers.
