On October 13th 2016, an international team of astronomers announced in a report published in the journal Nature, that they had discovered that the universe is larger than once believed. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists have determined that the universe may be 10 to 20 time bigger than what was thought, containing 1 or possibly 2 trillion more galaxies.
The team, led by Professor Christopher Conselice of the University of Nottingham in England used the Hubble to create a 3D map made from deep space images taken of the known universe. The deep field images contained 100 to 200 billion galaxies and were the most distant ever photographed. The team then applied new mathematical models to calculate where other galaxies might exist.
When they did the math they found that, for the numbers to add up, the universe has to contain 10 times more galaxies then those known to exist. The team believes that those galaxies are so far away that they are too faint to be seen by our most advanced telescopes. Professor Conselice says, "Who knows what properties we will find when we observe these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes.
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