Galaxies are the largest, most prominent structures in the universe.
However, our telescopes may not be powerful enough to count all of them.
With data from the Hubble Space Telescope, a telescope high above Earth’s atmosphere, scientists recently revised their estimate of the number of galaxies from mere billions to at least hundreds of billions.
With better telescopes, we may find even more. You can’t possibly see all the stars in our galaxy.
Billions of them are hidden by dust and gas, and others are too distant to be seen clearly; their lights blend together to give the galaxy its hazy impression.
The word galaxy comes from the Greek word gala, meaning “milky,” because galaxies look milky, or cloudy, when clustered together.
