You may have already guessed by now that the Universe is teeming with stars. If we consider only the Milky Way, which is just one out of trillions of other galaxies out there in the observable Universe, the estimated number of stars is staggering. Astronomers believe that our galaxy harbors between 100 billion and 200 billion stars.
But what if the Universe is a lot more than just its ‘observable’ part? That’s almost a certainty, as the light didn’t have enough time during the 13.7 billion years that passed since the Big Bang to reach us from the most distant parts of the Universe. Therefore, the entire Cosmos could even be millions of times bigger than what astronomers call the ‘observable Universe’.
How about those numerous scientific theories involving the existence of many other universes besides our own? Astrophysicists are also almost convinced that the Universe is just a tiny part of a Multiverse. They also claim that we would never be able to travel to other universes and that the laws of physics might behave entirely differently there.
Therefore, trying to understand just how many stars exist in the entire existence is beyond human imagination.
The James Webb Space Telescope will reveal more stars than ever
All astronomers can do is focus on the ‘observable Universe,’ as its boundaries don’t allow them, at least for the moment, to know for sure what exists beyond. The good or bad news is that there are a lot of stars to be explored even so and that perhaps the entire human race won’t live enough to explore them all.
According to Space.com, the James Webb Space Telescope built by NASA will reveal more stars than astronomers have ever seen before. The telescope will start its search for space objects this summer.
Daniel Weisz, an associate professor of astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, explained as quoted by WebbTelescope.org:
NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have been transformative, opening the door to the infrared universe, beyond the realm of red visible light,
Webb is a natural evolution of those missions, combining Spitzer’s view of the infrared universe with Hubble’s sensitivity and resolution.
NASA released the James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas 2021, after a long series of delays.
