NASA has made an important discovery in its quest to learn more about the universe. Well, more of an un-discovery, actually.
Photos sent to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft have led NASA scientists to determine there are likely hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe — not 2 trillion, as they’ve believed for years. “It’s an important number to know — how many galaxies are there?” says Marc Postman, the study’s lead author. “We simply don’t see the light from 2 trillion galaxies.”
While we might think of space as a vast sea of blackness, all we have to do is look up at night to see that it's punctuated by countless stars, galaxies and even a few planets visible to the naked eye. https://t.co/lCdDUB46Q6
— CNET (@CNET) January 12, 2021
The original number came from data collected from the Hubble telescope, which can’t see into the darker regions of space, Postman says. The New Horizons spacecraft, however, is currently near the edge of the Solar System, giving it a view of space 10 times darker than the Hubble can see, he says.
Should students be taught things that haven’t been confirmed?
