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                                  Facts of the Cosmos

                                           Understanding our Universe ?

With science and technology at the disposal of astronomers, we now have a greater understanding of our Universe.

The Universe is 13,700,000,000 (13.7 billion) years old (accurate to 1%).

The Universe is at least 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (150 billion trillion) miles across.

There are an estimated 125,000,000,000 (125 billion) galaxies in the Universe.

The Universe consists of 74% dark matter, 22% dark energy & only 4% baryonic matter (atoms).

Matter didn't exist until the Universe was 380,000 years old.

Stars & galaxies started to form when the Universe was 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) years old.

Since the Big-Bang the Universe has been expanding since.

There are an estimated 200,000,000,000 (200 billion) stars in our galaxy the Milky Way.

Our own Sun is 4,660,000,000 (4.66 billion) years old.

Our Sun will end its main sequence of life in 5,000,000,000 (5 billion) years.

Our Earth is 3,500,000,000 (3.5 billion) years old.

All life on Earth will end in 2,000,000,000 (2 billion) years.

NGC 7331 (referred to as the Milky Way's twin)

Using our most powerful telescopes our viewable horizon spans 14,000,000,000 (14 billion) light years (15.2%).

The estimated Universal horizon is 46,000,000,000 (46 billion) light years in any direction.

The Universe is expanding by 55-80 kilometers per second per Mpc (3,262,000 ly) - [Hubble's Law].

Image of the cosmic microwave background radiation