how many galaxies are visible from this planet?
351063
With the naked eye from the Northern Hemisphere you can see two -- Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy (M31)\n\nNaked eye from the Southern Hemisphere you can see three --\nMilky Way\nLarge Magellanic Cloud\nSmall Magellanic Cloud\n\nThe number of galaxies one can see with telescopes has never been precisely determined.\n\nGod is spelled B-I-G B-A-N-G\nPBrax@netscape.com
28023
The observable universe is estimated to contain:\n10^11 galaxies, 10^21 stars, and 10^78 atoms.\n\nThe means 100,000,000,000 galaxies.
1138295
9 Planets in a Solar Array?
877620
the only one that can be seen by naked eyes is Andromeda in moderately dark sky, though such a sky is available only in smaller towns and isolated areas reasonably far from population centers and sources of light pollution. It appears quite small without a telescope because only the central part is bright enough to be visible, but the full angular diameter of the galaxy is seven times that of the full moon. \n\nBy telescopes you can see plenty of galaxies ..
35874
In our Solar System, there are eight official planets, nine if you count Pluto (whose status is being debated).  \n\nAs for the rest of the universe, it is difficult to say, but it is reasonable to assume that planet formation from leftover stellar material is relatively common.  Astronomers usually detect large gaseous planets (like Jupiter) by the slight wobble of the star's motion due to the gravity of the planet, so currently it is almost impossible to detect small planets.\n\nAs of November 2005, there were 164 confirmed extrasolar planets.
739473
Brad is right; there are around 3000 stars visible to the naked eye at a given moment under good seeing conditions. There are around 8000 visible in the whole 4pi sky.\n\nOur galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 10^11 (100 billion) stars. There are about 10^11 galaxies, so about 10^22 stars in the whole universe.
705687
One estimate is 156 billion light years wide.\n\nhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html
1006929
Seriously, this is funny. Anyhow, there is absolutely no way of knowing how many planets exist in the entire universe as the universe as we know it is far to huge for any of our technology to fully explore. \n\nAnyhow, please stick with the topic. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with computers.\n\nThanks!
1007479
Yes.  Beyond our own Milky Way galaxy there are estimated to be 200 billion more galaxies in the visible universe at distances up to 13 billion light years from Earth.
788068
Almost none. The Andromeda spiral is visible without a telescope or binoculars and the Magellanic clouds are also. There are the only galaxies visible without some optical aid. The previous poster forgot the Magellanic clouds, which are visible from the southern hemisphere.
1085840
Since you've extended the question to ALL possible sand grains in the universe and not just on Earth, there are implied answers.\n\nSince we can only estimate the number of both, it's also a moot point.\n\nFor the record, the further we are able to see, the more stars we see - in every direction, so the potential for the number of stars is infinite. Check out the Hubble Space telescope deep space field..\nhttp://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1996/01/\n\nSand has so far been verified on only 3 planets (Earth, Venus and Mars) . The Outer planets cannot be verified as having sand, since they have extremely dense atmospheres. There are, however, several moons and asteroids which have sand sized material.\n\nHaving said that, there exists the potential for there to be more sand grains than stars, since there exists the possibility of planets (and other objects which may have sand) around every star.\n\nWe don't know how many stars have planets. If only 1 out of 1 million stars have a planet with sand as is found on Earth, sand would win.\n\nIf you limit your question to sand on Earth as opposed to stars in the universe, stars win big.
13641
There is no actual picture of the entire solar system. If one could be made, it is very unlikely that you would be able to see all the planets. I am sure you would only see The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn - as dots; maybe you will see Neptune and Uranus, that is about it. From earth if you look at Jupiter in the night sky it is as big as a star - though one of the brightest objects in night sky. From a position where you could see all the planets (the solar system is bigger than that, but let us restrict ourselves to only Pluto's orbit) you would see it as much smaller. Jupiter is 1,600 times bigger than earth (volume). Sun is a million times bigger. From most cities you can see Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. From a position where you could take a picture of all the planets you wont see all of them.\n\nEDIT: btw, I just remember I was talking about visibility of sun and planets. Actually if a photograph were taken jupiter and sun will be visible. The Sun is a star it will be visible not due to its size but due to the amount of light it gives. If we plotted it on a graph based only on its size and not its luminosity, it will be as visible as anything on the graph and no more. So if we drew an illustration 1024 pixels wide (most 17 inch computer screens are 1024x768 pixels) and put sun on the left most pixel and Neptune on the right most pixel - none of them will be visible. The distance between sun and earth is 1 AU (1 astronomical unit). Sun's Diameter is 1/150 AU, Neptune is 30 AU away from sun. If we scale 30AU to a 1024 pixel screen every pixel is equal to 0.029 AU, anything smaller than 0.029 AU can not be represented on this screen, the sun is 0.006AU wide - 1/5th of a pixel. If you open MS Paint and put a dot with a pencil that is one pixel imagine 1/5th of that - that is sun's size scalled to a 1024x768 screen.\n\nAnyway, Cronides' second link is the answer you are looking for.
665147
only a few galaxies have names: the sombrero, the milky way, andromeda, the black eye, the pinwheel, the small and large malgentic clouds, the whirlpool, and the spindle are all i know of.\n\nMost go by NGC #### in the new star catalouges.\n\nand we only have found a few galaxies.  There are still almost unlimited more!
73499
The farther we look into the universe with telescopes like Hubble and others, the more galaxies we see. I read a very interesting fact in an astronomy magazine recently that said it is estimated that if you hold your thumb out at arms lenth, close one eye and look at the top of your thumb nail, you are covering up an estimated 240,000 galaxies with your thumb regardless of what direction you look!!!!!! Each galaxy might have an average of 100 to 200 billion stars in them! I have no idea for the estimate of sand grains on every beach in the world-maybe that would be a good question to ask separately in the geography section- but I'm positive that there are quite a bit more stars than sand grains. Good luck!
167067
When I was in school, there was 9.  \n\nMercury\nVenus\nEarth\nMars\nJupiter\nSaturn\nUranus \nNeptune\nPluto\n\nNow, there has been another "planet" found.  I am not sure if they have classified it as a planet in our solar system just yet.
691551
The total of extra-solar planets is now up to 193. Two more were discovered just this month.
759202
Ok, how about this:\n\nAstronomers estimate that there are at least 70 sextillion (7×10^22) stars in the known universe. That is 230 billion times as many as the 300 billion in our own Milky Way.\n\n(shamelessly stolen from Wikepedia)