There was a time when humans thought our Milky Way galaxy was the universe. Some of those weird, diffuse smudges we saw with rudimentary telescopes were actually other galaxies.
As the telescopes improved, we began to collect images of amazing galaxies, of all shapes and sizes. There are even images of galaxies that are, or have, collided with each other.
When a Hubble astronomer decided to take long look (photo exposure over time) at a very small, but ‘empty’ part of the night sky, the result changed everything. Before this Hubble Deep Field Image, we estimated there were about 200 galaxies in the known universe. When we let Hubble view this tiny, ‘empty’ spot, thousands of galaxies were revealed. After the Deep Field revelations, we now estimate there may be 2 trillion galaxies.
Recently, the James Webb telescope reaches further into the universe. They are finding galaxies that ‘shouldn’t exist’ that do not go along with what is/was the current theory. Before Webb, they estimated the age of the universe at 14-15 billion years old. Since Webb is peering ever deeper, our estimates of size and age of the known universe will change. I love putting the adjective ‘known’ before universe. We use what God gave us to explore and theorize. We now know that what Hubble gave us as the known universe is not everything. Webb will peer further and further. What is beyond the limit that Webb can detect? We shall see. Webb is an Infrared telescope. Cosmic shhhtuff that might not be visible to our eyes is found with Webb. The Big Bang always seemed logical, and that 21cm background radiation comes from somewhere. Some of us today will not live to see what is beyond what Webb can detect, but it will be fascinating nonetheless.
Before this Hubble Deep Field Image, we estimated there were about 200 galaxies in the known universe.
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Nice post but are you sure about this number? 200 strikes me as low. I would have guessed the estimate was maybe in the millions even in pre-Hubble times.
And before that they had everything orbiting around earth.
Some of us today will not live to see what is beyond what Webb can detect, but it will be fascinating nonetheless.
Death could change all that.