In the universe there are 10 times more galaxies than expected – the BEND.it

The universe is incredibly more crowded than expected: the number of galaxies is in fact ten times greater than previously known. Indicated by the data of space telescopes, first of all, the Hubble. Published in the Astrophysical Journal, the discovery was made by the group coordinated by Christopher Conselice, the british university of Nottingham.

According to earlier estimates, the universe that you are able to observe with current instruments, contains about 200 billion galaxies but the new data indicate that this estimate is at least 10 times lower. The researchers reached this conclusion on the basis of the images of the telescopes and a simulation which has allowed us to deduce the existence of galaxies the current generation of telescopes can observe. This information led to the surprising conclusion that there must be an additional 90% of galaxies in the observable universe that are too small weak or too distant to be seen with telescopes today.

According to Conselice, research shows that “more than 90% of the galaxies still needs to be discovered and studied with future generations of telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be able to study galaxies with very weak”. The discovery also helps to explain why in spite of all the galaxies present in the universe the night sky is dark, and the light of many stars of these galaxies, they explained the authors of the research, it is invisible to the human eye and to most modern telescopes because of many factors, including the absorption of light by dust and gas factory.