It's estimated that our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains anywhere from 200,000,000,000 to 400,000,000,000 stars (I used the 0's to give you more of a visual on the size). Now obviously every galaxy in our universe doesn't contain that many stars, and some will contain more - but keep that number in mind.

While you think about that, check out this image - my favorite:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hubble_ultra_deep_field.jpg

Then click on the full view to see it in its 20 megabyte glory.

- This image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies.
- Astronomers compare the Ultra Deep Field view to looking through an eight-foot-long soda straw. That's the small area of sky you're seeing.
- It would take 50 of these pictures to cover our view of the moon. (Wikipedia says 10, the Hubble site says 50)
- To do the entire sky, it would take 12.7 MILLION more of these images. This would take almost 1 million years (at our current technology and equipment) to process. Hubble took this picture over 4 months, using 800 exposures - about 11.3 days of viewing time total.

Link to the article:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/

Estimating 200 billion stars per galaxy, with 10 k viewable galaxies in each picture, multiplied by 12.7 million:

25,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars could be in "viewable" distance from earth. That's 25.4 sextillion, but that doesn't look as awesome without the zeros. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to see each individual star, but that is just awesomeness.

Intresting info SmugFrog.

yeh makes you realise just how little an impact our tiny orb has in the grand scale of things.

That's just the observable universe. It is hypothesized that if what we can see were as small as a quarter, the rest of the universe would be the size of the Earth, or something to that effect.

Big.

If I kill a guy... the universe won't care.

.

Would it?

And some people say theres an edge to the universe. I wouldn't see how you could see it since it's so damn far away because it's so frigging GIANORMOUS!!

meatloaf231:

Anarchemitis:
Big.

That picture makes me want to photoshop another galaxy into the picture and set up a spot-the-difference thing.

Oh so cruel.

Would I win a cookie for solving it?

jacobschndr:
And some people say theres an edge to the universe. I wouldn't see how you could see it since it's so damn far away because it's so frigging GIANORMOUS!!

There's no such thing as an 'edge' to the universe.

According to bigbang theory (and I'm not claiming expertise in any field here) the curvature of space means that the universe is shaped like an extra-dimensional sphere (only that each point of it's surface borders the opposite side). So the amount of energy and matter in any part of the universe is more or less the same as any other part.

People often make the mistake of imagining the bigbang as an explosion of matter that occured in already infinite space (an illusion that is propegated by popular media). Therefore many people imagine that, if you could travel far enough, you would eventually reach the 'end' of the universe.

In reality the expansion of the universe is an expansion of space itself, when scientists predict that the universe was (for example) 1 inch in diameter at (again i'm not qouting figures) 0.5 seconds from it's beginning, they mean that SPACE was that big, not that matter had travelled that far in an explosion.

Awesome. Just, awesome.
I love looking up at the night sky. I think I'll go do that now.
EDIT: Back, it was awesome- I used that enough already in this post...um...epic. Yeah.

the monopoly guy:
Awesome. Just, awesome.
I love looking up at the night sky. I think I'll go do that now.
EDIT: Back, it was awesome- I used that enough already in this post...um...epic. Yeah.

I love doing that when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. But around here the city lights pretty much kill all but a small portion of the stars.

Shivari:

the monopoly guy:
Awesome. Just, awesome.
I love looking up at the night sky. I think I'll go do that now.
EDIT: Back, it was awesome- I used that enough already in this post...um...epic. Yeah.

I love doing that when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. But around here the city lights pretty much kill all but a small portion of the stars.

well that's not fair, many of the stars you see are dieing or dead already. The city just helps you realize it.

Kahuna-Kurt:

Shivari:

the monopoly guy:
Awesome. Just, awesome.
I love looking up at the night sky. I think I'll go do that now.
EDIT: Back, it was awesome- I used that enough already in this post...um...epic. Yeah.

I love doing that when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. But around here the city lights pretty much kill all but a small portion of the stars.

well that's not fair, many of the stars you see are dieing or dead already. The city just helps you realize it.

Define 'dieing'

Wow, I didn't realise infinity was so big.

jacobschndr:
And some people say theres an edge to the universe. I wouldn't see how you could see it since it's so damn far away because it's so frigging GIANORMOUS!!

There's theories that it just wraps around. Kinda like Pac-Man when you cross the edge of the screen.

meatloaf231:
Ok, prepare for image-death. Right click on these and select "view image" for the full size.

Can you spot the difference?

Remember, a cookie is on the line. Also, sadly I will not be doing the other one right now. It's too large for my internet to handle in under an hour and a half.

http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cookieot1.jpg

Just Fed Ex the cookie to the Student Center of Penn State Worthington/Scranton, and make sure you put "For Tito" on the packaging. They'll know who to give it to. :)

Oops, double post

SilentHunter7:

jacobschndr:
And some people say theres an edge to the universe. I wouldn't see how you could see it since it's so damn far away because it's so frigging GIANORMOUS!!

There's theories that it just wraps around. Kinda like Pac-Man when you cross the edge of the screen.

Except everywhere is the middle of the screen and the edge of the screen at the same time since any piece of space is connected to the next and there is no "edge of the screen" where all the magic happens because the magic happens everywhere and ohmigod my head hurts.

I will bet anyone that there is life up there... If you can't tell i'm into theoretical physics

meatloaf231:

*throws cookie really hard in the direction of Penn State Worthington*

Seriously though I went back and did it, and realized that I put it in a silly place. I should have done 1 of 2 things: either make the images different sizes so that people cannot simply rapidly switch between them to find it, or make the dot a little more subtle.

Good job though.

Why thank you kind sir! O:)

You should also consider rotating the image by some arbitrary amount. Preferably by a percentage with a really long decimal. :D

PurpleRain:
If I kill a guy... the universe won't care.

.

Would it?

Can't speak for the universe, but the parents, friends and family of the victim, as well as the local police, attorneys and any gangs the victim was in; they might have a few things to say about it.

SmugFrog:
25,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars could be in "viewable" distance from earth. That's 25.4 sextillion, but that doesn't look as awesome without the zeros. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to see each individual star, but that is just awesomeness.

Nope, sextillion is just fine and sums up how cool the universe is in a single word.

Thanks for the info and the new word.

Holy crap.

TheBadass:
Holy crap.

My sentiments exactly.

Fire Daemon:

SmugFrog:
25,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars could be in "viewable" distance from earth. That's 25.4 sextillion, but that doesn't look as awesome without the zeros. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to see each individual star, but that is just awesomeness.

Nope, sextillion is just fine and sums up how cool the universe is in a single word.

Thanks for the info and the new word.

The Universe: Rated 'S' for Sexcellent.

I can comprehend it all.