In Western science, an element is defined thus as per Webster's Third
International Dictionary: 1 a : one of the simple substances air, water, fire,
and earth of which according to early natural philosophers the physical universe
was composed b : one of these substances in its natural form or occurrence; c
(1) : one of the celestial spheres of ancient astronomy : one of the celestial
bodies (2) : HEAVENS, SKY
This month at the 25th General Assembly of the International Astronomical
Union (click on the highlight to access its web site) astronomers working
in the astronomy project called TWO=DEGREE GALAXY RED SHIFT SURVEY presented
their calculations about the number of starts in the universe that can be
observed and understood with the knowledge of the current astronomical science:
"Dr Simon Driver, of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
using some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, concluded that about
70 thousand million million million stars (7 x 1022) shine down on
us each night.
The researchers, who will present their finding to the General Assembly of
the International Astronomical Union today, believe their estimate is ten
times more accurate than any previous count.
This is not the total number of stars in the universe, but it's the number
within range of our telescopes. The real number could be much, much larger
still - some people think it is infinite....
Now compare the above to what veD = SCIENCES OF CREATION AND LIFE says
about stars and universes that exist...."INFINITE"....and SRiimD Daevi bhaagvtm
which is counted as one of the puraaAN states that all the universes are in one
thumb-nail of bhunessvrii who is female form of the original pRkruti formed of
creator bRH`m....From this statement Dr. Driver is right in saying his estimate
of 7sextrillion stars could be ultimately INFINITE..... Following is the news
posting on the web site of
International Astronomical Union
Star Count: ANU Astronomer
Makes Best Yet
There are more stars in the sky than all the grains of sand on every beach
and in every desert on earth, according to an Australian National University
astronomer who has made the most accurate calculation of star numbers to date.
Dr Simon Driver, of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
using some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, concluded that about
70 thousand million million million stars (7 x 1022) shine down on
us each night.
"Even for a professional astronomer used to dealing in monster numbers this
is mind-boggling," Dr Driver says.
Most of these stars are too dim to see with the naked human eye, which can
pick out only around 5,000 stars at the darkest parts of earth and just 100 in
the middle of a big city, such as Sydney.
Dr Driver and his collaborators – Dr Jochen Liske, from the Royal
Observatory Edinburgh; Dr Nicholas Cross, from Johns Hopkins University;
Professor Warrick Couch, from the University of New South Wales and Dr David
Lemon from St Andrews University – did not count the stars one by one.
Rather, Dr Driver and his team counted all the galaxies, which are large
collections of stars, in one small region of the universe close to Earth.
By measuring precisely how bright each galaxy is they were able to estimate
how many stars it contained and extrapolated this out to the whole region of
the Universe visible through telescopes.
The researchers, who will present their finding to the General Assembly of
the International Astronomical Union today, believe their estimate is ten
times more accurate than any previous count.
"This is not the total number of stars in the universe, but it's the number
within range of our telescopes. The real number could be much, much larger
still - some people think it is infinite."
There have been other estimates of the number of stars over the years, but
Dr Driver’s calculation is the closest so far because it combines the best
counts of galaxies ever conducted with the most modern cosmological
measurements of the geometry of our universe.
The observations were carried out using many of the world's most powerful
telescopes, including the Anglo-Australian Telescope, located at the
University’s Siding Spring Observatory, near the town of Coonabarabran. The
calculations would not have been possible without the world's largest galaxy
survey, the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which will be released at this
meeting.
"Most of these stars probably have planets, a fraction of which probably
have life," Dr Driver says.
"But they are very, very far away. It’s not so much a question of whether
other life exists, but whether we will ever be able to contact them given the
massive distances involved."
Contacts
Dr Driver is attending the International Astronomical Union 25th General
Assembly in Sydney, Australia, 13-26 July 2003. He can be contacted via the
media room.