1-2 TRILLION GALAXIES!!

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IN THE fall of 2016 an international team of astrophysicists led by Christopher Conseliece, of the University of Nottingham in England, released the results of a 15 year-long research project to determine with better accuracy how many galaxies there are in the known universe. The results? A minimum of 1 trillion but more probably 2 trillion galaxies. In other words this was the best figure they could come up with and they left it rather open ended, there may be more than 2 trillion galaxies!

Now is when we all say in unison: OH MY GOD! Indeed! The human mind, at least my mind and all those whom I know, can't absorb or compute or comprehend this number. It's simply too huge. Let me try and give you some point of reference or perspective.

Our own Milky Way Galaxy is between 100,000 and 180,000 light years in diameter. In other words traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second or 186,000 miles per second) it would take at least 100,000 YEARS to travel from one side of our galaxy to the other! And our galaxy is only modest in size. The M67 Galaxy is 980,000 light years across, and the whopper Hercules A is 1.5 million, yes million, light years in diameter!

When you look up at the stars at night what you are seeing are mostly stars within our own galaxy, however many of those bright pin points of light are actually galaxies, so distant they appear as stars to your eye.

The Hubble Telescope that orbits the earth at an altitude of 340 miles provided the majority of information aiding the international team that has calculated the number of galaxies. The Hubble Telescope is only 43.5 feet long but has opened the universe to incredible views since it's deployment in 1990. This incredible telescope is so precise it could see two fireflies ten feet apart in Tokyo from Washington DC. It has gathered light that was created 13.4 billion years ago. Hubble orbits the earth once every 95 minutes.

To date, the farthest known galaxies are 13.5 billion light years away. Let me remind you that if you could travel at the speed of 186,000 miles per second it would take you 13.5 billion years to go from earth to the farthest know boundary of our Universe. These were among the very first galaxies birthed when the Universe came into existence according to astrophysicists. The Hubble telescope focused on a distant speck of space where there was no perceivable light for 22 days to see what was out there. When the images were developed Astronomers were stunned. Thousand of galaxies were in the image. The image was named The Hubble Deep Field Image. This was in 2004. When I first saw this image in a National Geographic article about 13 years ago I was stunned. Here is that same pic. For a better image you can go to Hubble.com.

Here is another mind blowing fact. Our own galaxy is of modest size when compared to other known galaxies and has approximately 400 Billion stars. Let's say thats an average number of stars within a galaxy. So take 400 billion stars and multiply that by 2 trillion and thats a very rough guess at how many stars are out there. OH MY!

MYSTICISM MEETS PHYSICS

Mystics are simply those humans who have the capacity to sense, know and understand things which are considered mysteries. They gather their information from or through a connection to the Universal Field, or Universal Source. For instance some mystics have "seen" the Universe and have told us that it is all One Thing, that there is a pervasive Intelligence that permeates All.

Theoretical physicists have postulated there is an all-pervasive energy, or energetic substance within the entire Universe. This substance is found within each atom and is a constant oneness within all things. A most recent paper published from NASA postulates what they call a "Plasma Universe"... an electromagnetic substance that permeates all things. Gosh, it would have been so much easier had they just gone to their local mystic for such information!

I find it fascinating, however, to see science and mystical vision come to the same understanding of things.

ONE LAST COMMENT... ON ATHEISM

We humans are fascinating creatures. Once we adopt a belief as our own we are extremely reluctant to let it go. (I'm going to address this phenomenon in an upcoming post... It's more than just a function of cognitive dissonance.) Atheists, like the rest of us, have their opinions regarding a Higher Power, or God. There is none according to them. And I certainly can understand their vehement views...for the most part. However, I kind of chuckle when I hear them expound upon the subject simply because I put their opinions in perspective. Here they are, tiny miniscule specks of biological matter with some intelligence and limited consciousness passing judgement upon an entire Universe. It is rather a humorous thing actually how such an egotistical view can be held and sustained. I mean, really. It's kind of like a flea upon an elephants back proclaiming there is no elephant. The fleas view and understanding are so limited that to it there is no elephant. Nothing against atheists here, just observing a judgement passed from a very, very limited perspective.

And this brings us to the next post. Beliefs. Where they come from and how they influence us and how they entrench themselves within our awareness. Should be good.

Many Blessings,

Mistermercury