Which Is Greater, The Number Of Sand Grains On Earth Or Stars In The Sky?

We get caught up, in our world, that sometimes we forget just how vast the universe is.

Overwhelmingly large number of planets existing with similar life forms as earth. What's the probability? And what's your take.

www.npr.org...

Our stargazer gets a Hubble telescope and a calculator, so now we can count distant galaxies, faint stars, red dwarfs, everything we've ever recorded in the sky, and boom!

Now the population of stars jumps enormously, to 70 thousand million, million, million stars in the observable universe (a 2003 estimate), so that we've got multiple stars for every grain of sand — which means, sorry, grains, you are nowhere near as numerous as the stars.

However until then Happy Holidays and enjoy Christmas on planet earth.

a reply to: Realtruth

The Number of stars in the Universe is always going to be grater as we can only observe a portion of it.

Now the population of stars jumps enormously, to 70 thousand million, million, million star

Very, very interesting...

I won’t get into the back story of this, but coincidentally that is close to the number of Stars I’m going for on this website.

Things that make you go hmmmm.

We have no way of knowing or comprehending the vastness of the whole universe. What we can see even with a strong telescope could only be a tiny tiny fraction of what exists in different levels of the universe. We may not be able to see what is outside the bountry of the universe we can witness, the gravity of multilayers can make it so no light escapes another section similar to what we can see. They may not be able to see us either.

There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on earth. It is interesting to note that in the Old Testament Abraham is given the blessing of having progeny as numerous as the Stars and the sand. Until the telescope was built the most stars you could see on the clearest night was around five or six thousand.

Using my somewhat simple minded approach , science has proven up on a theory I had when I was twelve years old.
I am not going to go into the Drake equation, but if most of the observable stars have planets and there are more stars than grains of sand on earth. And the one and only planet we have full explored (Earth) is teaming with life. Then therefore life must exists elsewhere. Simple logic from the perspective of a citizen of a type 0 or less civilization.

This week I have thought a lot about life as poor shepherd boy of 17AD. What would he think if he was plucked from his world and placed into ours.

I can only dream of what's to come in the next two thousand years. We are on the cusp of something wonderful.

Well Stars of course, everybody knows that now...www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Realtruth

If we consider the Universe is infinite, then all the sand grains on all the planets isn't enough.

a reply to: Realtruth

And can you number the sand's of the earth upon which you now lie or the stars of heaven above you Yet I alone whom made them know there true number but hear me Jacob I shall multiply your seed until they are greater in number even than these.

So is man meant to colonize all of those star's and beyond.

As far as you can see - to the north, the south, the east and the west for all generations I shall give unto you as an inheritance - Can you count the sands of the earth upon which you NOW lie or the STARS OF HEAVEN ABOVE.


Mathematically though there are far more stars in the known universe which is still getting larger than there are individual grain's of sand on the earth but both can only be estimated.


www.universetoday.com...

....Which Is Greater, The Number Of Sand Grains On Earth Or Stars In The Sky? ...


the way the question is phrased can have an impact on the answer... "Stars in the Sky"
allows for only the Stars seen in the canopy above our heads, by unaided natural eyesight, and must exclude all lights-in-the-sky which are not Stars (i.e. moons, comets, space rocks, satellites, nebula, Galaxies, etc.)

Our own Galaxy has let's say, 500 Billion Stars, and we 'see' a sliver of the Milky Way which appears as a stream of milk (but composed of stars) which appears as a diagonal band tilted like a = (reverse slash) in our night sky...
we are 'seeing' only a partial segment of the denser Galactic plane of Stars.

So -- we only observe about, perhaps 3/4 of the Star population of our home Galaxy, in every night sky above every point on Earth where people travel or live.
Remember all those points of light outside the Milky Way are other Galaxies, yes composed of stars, but those points-of-light only number maybe 3,000 as seen by a Shepherd tending the flock some 2,000 years ago


so...................... the seabeds, the beaches, the soil under our feet, deserts worldwide, ALL is/was 'sand' and that volume of sand might fill up a huge cubic box that is 100 miles X 100 miles X 100 miles...

You figure out if that box has more grains-of-sand than the 500 billion Stars in our Galaxy

My money is on the Sand grains outnumbering the Stars by more than 50-to-1









did you know... a reverse slash will not show up in your post but lets see if a forward slash will... here goes --> / /
let's see the result
nope a reverse slash is blank space.... interesting

a reply to: rickymouse

New to posting here, and I don't see a way to PM you, so I wanted to ask what your avatar pic is?? LOL it's driving me crazy trying to figure it out.

Ha ha ha ha..... what's it look like on a stick.... a reply to: SituationNAFU

A ....Rock...?

a reply to: Realtruth

Finite Earth sand, Infinite stars and planets

originally posted by: donktheclown
a reply to: Realtruth

Finite Earth sand, Infinite stars and planets

But, I can see more sand than I can see stars with my naked eye.