Scientists have reached the amount of starlight produced by the universe at all, and the answer - which translates into a very large amount - can shed light on some of the deepest mysteries of the universe.
The stars began to form shortly after the start of the universe, about 14 billion years ago, and since then the star generation has been more efficient, with about trillion trillion spores forming in two trillion galaxies.
Scientists have now realized for the first time how these stars form and how much light they have sent over that vast period of time using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope.
Astronomers have been able to measure the full amount of light emitted by stars, which came mostly from galaxies, giving them a "better understanding of the process of starry evolution and gaining fascinating details of how the universe is produced," astronomer Marco Agelo, lead author of the study, said. For its luminous content. "
The calculations allowed scientists to reach the total number of photons emitted from stars. Expressing this number is very difficult, in part because it depends on a number of variables. But it is difficult to write because there are many zeros. In total, there are four followed by 85 zero.
Scientists say that despite this vast amount of emitted light, very little of it reaches us other than the light we see from our sun and galaxy, pointing out that the illumination of the universe that reaches us is roughly equivalent to a 60-watt bulb in total darkness from a distance of four kilometers , And this is because the universe is very vast and far away.
But Fermi's telescope allowed researchers to look at the spiral of light from the stars, calculate the amount of light absorbed, and the amount of light that existed at all.
This new discovery will allow scientists to take a look at the early beginnings of the universe.