Skip to content

Starts With A Bang — October 23, 2016

How many galaxies are in the Universe?

Sign up for the Starts With a Bang newsletter

Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all

It used to be billions and billions, but now it’s in the trillions!

“There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe.” –Carl Sagan

Did you hear the news, that it isn’t “billions and billions” anymore, but that there are TWO TRILLION (or 2,000,000,000,000) galaxies in the observable Universe? Come get the science behind this amazing story, including how we know, what it means and what we’ll even have the potential to learn in the near future. Enjoy the latest Starts With A Bang podcast!

For early podcast access, Ask Ethan priority and to have your name read out on the Starts With A Bang podcast, support us on Patreon here!

Sign up for the Starts With a Bang newsletter

Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all

Related

Bright orange star surrounded by a dense field of smaller white stars in space.

How humanity discovered we’re all made of “star stuff”

Carl Sagan was far from the first to declare we are the children of ancient stars.

quantum entanglement qubit ER = EPR

Starts With A Bang

The 16 stories that shaped physics and astronomy in 2024

There was a lot of hype and a lot of nonsense, but also some profoundly major advances. Here are the biggest ones you may have missed.

Abstract image featuring glowing lines radiating outward, creating a wave-like, undulating pattern.

The “living mirror” theory: Why all living organisms may have consciousness

“We do not experience primarily because we have brains; we experience because we are alive.”

evolution universe cosmic history big bang

Starts With A Bang

The Big Bang: a series of steps down an energy staircase

From a hot, dense, uniform state in its earliest moments, our entire known Universe arose. These unavoidable steps made it all possible.

A sky full of stars with a large central galaxy, surrounded by smaller galaxies and bright spots on a dark background.

Starts With A Bang

How large is the biggest galaxy in the Universe?

It was barely a century ago that we thought the Milky Way encompassed the entirety of the Universe. Now? We’re not even a special galaxy.

Up Next

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Are ‘dark comets’ the Universe’s biggest threat to Earth?

Might Armageddon come not from an asteroid or a comet, but by something completely unseen altogether? “Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say ‘what […]