A New Webb Image Reveals a Cosmos Full of Galaxies
First there was Hubble who discovered that there be galaxies out there, then the Hubble deep space image, then the Hubble ultradeep space image, and now the Webb offers a better view (of some of the maybe one trillion galaxies out there).
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. When someone says ‘science teaches such and such’, he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach it; experience [Nature] teaches it” (Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, p.187)
I couldn’t find any estimate of the number of dots, so I divided the image into 820 squares, counted the number in forty, average 14.7, and multiplied by 820. About 12k. Add conversion factors (total sq. arcmintues/image sq. arcmintues x 12k and round) and there are clearly more galaxies out there than we expansionistic modern humans can ever hope to conquer.
Just to make the math easy, assume 10 planets or large moons/star and 1 is potentially life bearing, or less, so figure there are only 1e24, or a septillion planets for the taking that life could colonize. We live on one of them. We are one of 8,700,000 eukaryote species on Earth. Ain’t we special (and proud of it). I’m one of over 8.1 billion modern humans (and counting). Ain’t I something. I am Lord Man.
But if modern humans become Borg-like expansionists, spread throughout the Milky Way and beyond, assuming a speed of light maximum, how many galaxies could we inhabit, build Dyson spheres about all suns to turn all usable energy and matter into humans before the heat death of the cosmos? Now that’s what I (as a modern human after breakfast) want to know.
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And for just the view: https://www.sustainable.soltechdesigns.com/images/galaxies.jpg
And for details: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2024/106/01HDHJM9FYCCYX0KHNEG1TSEZ4