"Forget billions and billions. When it comes to the number of galaxies in the Universe, both theorists' and observers' estimates are too low."
- OR -
"Why the science in my books will inevitably become dated by increased knowledge with the passage of time, and there's nothing I can do about it."
Alex uses the "approximately two hundred billion galaxies" in the books, because that's been the best estimate available to us. Now we're talking about 6 trillion? TWENTY trillion???
I can imagine a lot - I'm paid to imagine a lot! - but I think we've found my limit here. What is the universe, even?
P.S.: I'm thinking I can use this number going forward, the justification being that the Kats have a better estimate than we did. But chasing the advance of science is probably a game I can't win - which is fine; I'm just glad it's advancing!
“There are more galaxies in the Universe than even Carl Sagan ever imagined”: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/galaxies-in-universe/
(As an aside, I am amused that this article uses as its header image a “simulated galaxy catalog providing a snippet of sky that might correspond, statistically, with what James Webb expects to see.” I’d say Webb outperformed expectations by a wide margin!)
Originally posted on Facebook.