Topic: 300 sextillion stars!!!!

[chief-david]

http://www.startribune.com/science/111128104.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

part of the article

A new study suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion of them, or three times as many as scientists previously calculated. That is a 3 followed by 23 zeros. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion.

The estimate, contained in a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on findings that there are many more red dwarf stars — the most common star in the universe — than once thought.

[DanS]

It's hard to imagine how anybody can put a number on the amount of stars. It's incredible on how many you can see just using a back yard telescope and peering into the denser parts of the milky way. It's like standing on the beach and looking down at the sand. And that's just a minuscule portion of our little galaxy.

[SlowModem]

It's hard to imagine how anybody can put a number on the amount of stars. It's incredible on how many you can see just using a back yard telescope and peering into the denser parts of the milky way. It's like standing on the beach and looking down at the sand. And that's just a minuscule portion of our little galaxy.

I think it's just one star with a bunch of pieces.  

If you put all the scientists end to end, they'd still never reach a conclusion.  

It's like Steven Wright once said, "I have the largest sea shell collection in the world.  I leave it out on the beaches so everyone can enjoy it."  

[Downlinerz2]

It's hard to imagine how anybody can put a number on the amount of stars. It's incredible on how many you can see just using a back yard telescope and peering into the denser parts of the milky way. It's like standing on the beach and looking down at the sand. And that's just a minuscule portion of our little galaxy.

I think it's just one star with a bunch of pieces.   
If you put all the scientists end to end, they'd still never reach a conclusion.   
It's like Steven Wright once said, "I have the largest sea shell collection in the world.  I leave it out on the beaches so everyone can enjoy it."   

         

[Farmtalk]

can you imagine how large a number like a sextillion really is???? That's huge!!!

Nice fact 

[WeatherHost]

A new study suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion of them,


I'd say that's only a small fraction.


Scientists feel they need to quantify these sorts of things almost as some form of self-worth proclamation to justify the money they spend staring off into space.

[Farmtalk]

That's still a large number to organize and quantify 

[ocala]

I have heard it said several times that there are more stars then there are grains of sand on every beach in the world.
I don't know how they came up with that but I would have to say BS to that.
300 sextillion is an unimaginable amount, but  more then every grain of sand?

[Farmtalk]

I agree... There are a LOT of grains of sand around here....

[WeatherHost]

There is no reason to even try to put a number on it or to make comparisons like 'more than ... '.  The count is infinite.  The Universe is infinite; there is no beginning, there is no end, there are no boundaries,  It just is.