A new survey of the cosmos suggests the universe has at least 2 trillion galaxies read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1270-a-new-survey-of-the-cosmos-suggests-the-universe-has-at-least-2-trillion-galaxies

A new survey of the cosmos suggests the universe is home to at least 2 trillion galaxies, a galactic population 20 times larger than previous estimates.

To estimate its total population, astronomers must study the density of galaxies within the portions of the cosmos, they can see and make inferences about the vast unknown.

Researcher Christopher Conselice has been working with an international team of astronomers to translate telescope images into a 3D map of the visible universe. The researchers have organized their surveys by epoch, exploring galaxy populations and galactic densities at different times during the evolution of the universe.

The research team's most recent exploration of the early universe suggests there were more galaxies than previously thought.

In one pocket of the early universe, when the cosmos was just a few billion years old, researchers found ten times the number of galaxies found in a similar portion of the galaxy today.

Conselice explained, over the 13.7 billion years of cosmic evolution since the Big Bang, galaxies have been growing through star formation and mergers with other galaxies. Finding more galaxies in the past implies that significant evolution must have occurred to reduce their number through extensive merging of systems.

Conselice added, we are missing the vast majority of galaxies because they are very faint and far away. The number of galaxies in the universe is a fundamental question in astronomy, and it astonishes the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxy in the cosmos has yet to be studied. Who knows what interesting properties we will find when we study these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes?