Look at the night sky, what do you see? Billions of stars twinkle in the sky, like a scattering of precious diamonds. Stars are planets, nebulae, quasars, pulsars, systems like the solar one and there are a great many of them, since the human mind simply cannot recognize the true scale of the Universe.

Calculating the exact number of stars is almost impossible. Therefore, scientists operate on the amount that is available to them within the visible Universe. One thing is for sure: the stars are not just millions, but billions and trillions, and only those that can be seen through a powerful telescope or with the naked eye, although people from ancient times tried in various ways to make their calculations.

What did the stars think in antiquity?

Even in ancient Greece, the first astronomers tried to calculate how many stars are in the sky. The ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who lived more than two and a half thousand years ago, not only counted the stars, but also kept a catalog of star luminaries, giving them their names. He carefully watched the night sky every year, making up the coordinates of the new flashing stars. He marked events like the birth of stars. He conducted his works continuously for decades. The scientist managed to collect information about more than 1000 celestial objects. Of course, his work made a huge contribution to the development of modern astronomy.

Aristotle also conducted star calculations, also noting the position of the stars in the vault of heaven. Antique astronomers acted virtually blindly. They did not understand that a star’s flash is not its birth, but rather the end of its life cycle, and what we see in reality is only the light that has reached us from a star that died millions of years ago.

Hipparchus included in its catalog 15 stars of maximum magnitude, 45 stars of the second, 208 of the third, 217 of the fifth and 49 stars of the sixth magnitude. He first suggested that many stars shine unevenly, and this is due to their considerable distance from our planet.

How many stars do people see in the sky?

Since antiquity, human vision has not changed, and we see exactly the same as the ancient Greek astronomers. The naked eye can see the number of stars that have a magnitude of approximately +7. In this case, the indicator varies depending on the quality of vision, time of day and the degree of illumination of the sky. I.e without special devices, a person can see about six thousand stars in the sky at night.

If we take into account the division into hemispheres, flare from cities, uneven terrain of the earth’s landscape, then in the bottom line, about two and a half thousand stars are available to the human eye.

How many stars are visible through a telescope?

In order to count a larger number of stars in the sky, you should arm yourself with special equipment, the telescope will become the simplest technique. Thanks to a good telescope, you can observe about 200 thousand flickering objects in the sky. Impressive, right?

But the use of a powerful telescope used in scientific observatories will help to see already 6-10 times more stars in the sky. That is, when using a powerful telescope, an ordinary person can look at a distance of about 47.7 billion light years. Not all objects are clearly visible, since our solar system is located approximately in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy, and many of them are simply obscured by the central part of the galaxy.

It's hard to see all the stars in the sky. Observatories with powerful telescopes are usually located high in the mountains quite far from large human settlements. On a high mountain, a more relaxed atmosphere and a wider viewing angle.

Mankind is trying to develop new methods to help see more and more the number of stars in the visible Universe.One of such breakthroughs was the use of the powerful Hubble telescope, thanks to which unique images of nebulae, distant galaxies, superclusters of stars, quasars, pulsars appeared. There is a James Webb telescope that can penetrate previously insurmountable obstacles.

To summarize, we can say that according to the latest version of the Hubble telescope, in our galaxy the Milky Way there are about 100-400 billion different stars. By the way, our galaxy is far from a giant. Modern astronomers recognize it as average in size and in the number of stars in it. There are objects in the Universe much larger, for example, the galaxy Magellanic clouds.

How many stars in our solar system?

Looking at the starry night sky, many people must have wondered how many stars are within the solar system. Perhaps someone is thinking about millions and billions, but in fact there is only one star and this is the Sun. It appeared a little more than 4.5 billion years ago. This is due to the fact that in one place clusters of cosmic gas constantly gathered. At the same time, each of them had its own gravitational force. That was until a star appeared. Her internal energy has become a counteraction to gravitational forces.

Interesting fact: Despite the fact that all stars may differ slightly in appearance and are accordingly classified in different ways, their composition is identical. So, all of them came from cold molecular hydrogen, which was affected by gravity.

The sun is considered a relatively young star. Its huge mass allows you to collect closer to yourself less massive objects and make them move around them. The light that the sun emits reaches the earth in just 8 minutes and 20 seconds.

How many stars in our galaxy?

Our Galaxy is called the Milky Way. It is in it that the solar system is located, as well as many others. This galaxy is considered spiral with a jumper. Its diameter is approximately 30 thousand parsecs, which in terms of light summers is 100 000. If we translate into a unit of measurement of distance more familiar to humans, it will be 1 quintillion kilometers. The approximate thickness of the Milky Way is 1,000 light-years.

Interesting fact: Many stars prefer pair existence. They are considered binary stars, having one for two center of gravity. It is noteworthy that in the universe there are also whole groups, where one star of gravity accounts for 3-4 stars. As for our Sun, this star is a loner. But it would be interesting to meet the dawn immediately with 2-3 celestial bodies.

According to the latest estimates, there are approximately 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy. Most of them have accumulated in such a way that from afar it looks like a flat disk. In addition to ordinary stars, there are also 25-100 billion brown dwarfs in the Milky Way.

How many stars in the universe?

With the naked eye in the area of ​​the northern horizon, a person can see only 3,000 stars. When telescopes appeared, people were able to see more objects in the universe. Moreover, the more advanced models of astronomical equipment were created, the more stars astronomers could see. Over time, it was decided to count not the stars, but the galaxies, believing that in each of them there are at least 100 billion stars.

In 1996, observatories concluded that 50 billion different galaxies can be seen from Earth. When the Hubble Orbital Telescope appeared, it could be used to look at outer space without interference from the Earth’s atmosphere. Thanks to him, astronomers were able to see from their home planet 125 billion galaxies.

Interesting fact: to find out the number of stars in the universe visible to people, it is necessary to add another 11 zeros to the number 125 million.

It is worth noting the different number of stars in these galaxies.For example, our Milky Way is an ordinary spiral galaxy, and there are 200 billion stars in it. At the same time, the Andromeda Galaxy is nearby. It is more massive, and it already has 1 trillion stars.

Naturally, scientific and technological progress does not stand still, but so far unfortunately humanity is far from such fundamental discoveries. We can see the cosmos as much as we can do the technology that is available at the moment. It is possible that in some hundred years, humanity will discover new methods of studying and mastering the universe.