More stars in the entire universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world??

Question

I was discussing this 'fact' I read years ago from a book by Carl Sagan with my husband, and he simply could not believe there are that many stars out there. Can anybody englighten me as to the general perspective concerning the words-cannot-describe-humungous universe of ours - considering in itself the gigantic size of stars, the number of stars in our own galaxy (how many?) and the number of galaxies within the universe....

I would appreciate links and especially good books to read that may be of use. (plus your own knowledge) Thanks.

the_angry_princess911 · Accepted Answer

Our Universe is the only one that we know of.  Within our universe are at least a hundred billion galaxies.  Within our galaxy (assuming it is normal) there are a hundred billion stars.  That gives us (assuming the averages hold true) roughly 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (ten sextillion) stars in the known universe.

Anonymous · Answer

Tell your husband belief is not required, look up the (approxiamte) facts that are known. - our galaxy I think 100 billion stars, it's about 200,000 light years across

some stars in Orion are 500 light years away, closest nearest star is 4,2 light years away (light year is how far light travels in a year - far)

- there are billions of galaxies

yes it is beyond the human mind to fathom very well things like the size of the universe. Ever did the sun is an orange routine - pluto ends up being a "grain of sand" about a mile away, Jupitor - a pea - (something like that) gets wild out there :)

Tropic-of-Cancer · Answer

100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way
100,000,000,000 galaxies and more.

The numbers are huge.

? · Answer

don't forget other dimension that have galaxies/stars

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More stars in the entire universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world??

4 Answers