How many galaxies are REALLY out there right now?
483637
Listen to Monty Python's "The Galaxy Song".  Seriously!
973173
There are more stars than we can count.  Most of them have planets.   Most of those planets have moons.
92547
This is a very difficult question. We don't really know how many stars currently exist, so let's rephrase the question to "how many stars in the night sky visible to the naked eye still exist?" (An easier question would be "does star xyz still exist?") If all of these stars are classified into groups whose average lifespans are known, and if the current ages of these stars can be estimated, then using the estimated time that light takes to travel from a particular star to Earth, we can determine if the star has already gone supernova, or if it has darkened. Since most stars visible to the naked eye are relatively young (as compared with super-distant stars visible through huge telescopes), it is likely that a significant proportion of them do still exist. But, again, the question is extremely difficult, but makes for some good thinking.
1139554
Number of atoms in the universe:\n10^11 galaxies * 10^11 stars in each * 10^33 grams in each star * 6x10^23 atoms of hydrogen per gram = about 10^79 atoms.  There are probably more photons but photons are so. . . insubstantial. Neutrinos?  Well, you ever try to catch one? They are only slightly easier to find than ghosts.
84637
We are part of the Milky Way. Excluding the Milky Way, the closest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy with possibility that the two galaxies may collide within the next three billion years. It is currently 2.5 million light years away.
257126
There are not an infinite number of stars, but there are billions and billions. The universe is not infinte, as we can see close to the end (boundary) of the universe with telescopes like the Hubble. Because there are so many galaxies and clusters where new stars were being born millions of years ago, because the speed of light is also not infinite, no one can really count them.\nhttp://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/\nFor more, go here:
1126282
Consider this there are billions upon billions of stars in each galaxy we are just 1 galaxy and there are billions upon billions of galaxy's in the universe. So the question should start with the universe.
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.
491513
During clear night, there are about 6000 (six thousand) visible stars from each hemisphere of the Earth. However, it is for sure that there is no certain way of calculating the exact number of "stars up there", because of explosions of old stars and creations of new stars, that occur almost every minute, somewhere in the universe.
159281
Take into consideration the billions of stars in this galaxy. Then take into consideration the billions of galaxies in the local cluster. Then take into consideration the billions of clusters in the local supercluster. Then take into consideration the billions of superclusters in the local segment of the wall. Then take into consideration the billions of segments in the Great Wall. Then take into consideration the billions of walls in the Universe. It's even possible there's more than one universe! \n\nWhat do you believe? I think there is life out there. But are they sentient and advanced? Maybe. Maybe not.
671223
Like the number of grains of sand on the beach or angels that can dance on the head of a pin, the number of stars in the sky remains a great unknown. Discussing the number of stars in the Milky Way alone, astronomer William Keel, writing for the sci.astro Galaxies FAQ, claims that there are "about as many as the number of hamburgers sold by McDonald's." \nThen he elaborates. The usual way to determine the number of stars in the universe is to consider how many stars there are in the Milky Way, and then to multiply that number by our best guesstimate at the number of galaxies in the universe. This FAQ suggests there are probably about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, although "a 50% error either way is quite plausible." As for the number of galaxies in the universe, well that's a whole separate mathematical puzzle. \n\nOther star enumerators we located on the Web offer numbers ranging from more than 200 billion stars in our galaxy to 3 thousand million billion stars (3 followed by 16 zeroes), in the universe. NASA alleges there are zillions of uncountable stars.
952552
assume 10^11 stars in 10^11 galaxies at 2x10^33 grams each per star and ~4.6x10^23 atoms/gram (remember, the uni is 10% helium).  This'll get you within an order of magnitude or so.\n\nNote that this is number of ATOMS which appear to represent perhaps only about 5% of the total mass of the universe, most of the rest being dark matter (25%) and dark energy (~70%).
1005881
There are _trillions_ of stars in the Universe.  Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is composed of 300 - 400 billion stars.  There are _billions_ of galaxies in the Universe, many dwarfing the size of ours.\n\nThe chance of other life _not_ being out there is so close to zero that it can't even be calculated.  There are infinite possibilities in this Universe, and we haven't begun to study more than a tiny bit of them.\n\nTo anybody that has the audacity to say "no" there isn't, then get an ego check.  We aren't the only intelligent life in a Universe of infinite possibilities.
1091585
You've awakened the starry-eyed dreamer in me at this late hour!  I should be sleeping, but can't resist your question.\n\nHow many other planets, do I think?  Actually my number is a lot higher than millions!  In fact, on this subject you get into numbers so large that most of us humans cannot relate them to anything in our experience.  So, sadly, I doubt we can appreciate the grandeur of the universe.  But let me try...\n\nOne fairly recent estimate says there are 70 sextillion *visible stars* in range of modern telescopes (70,000 million million million).\n\nTo help put that in perspective, I'll use a rather old but useful analogy.  Imagine scooping up a big handful of sand at the beach. Try counting the grains of sand.  You'll give up, most likely, in seconds, assuming you even bother to try.  Now look all around you on the beach, and think about *that* number.  Now think about all the grains of sand on *all the world's* beaches... and deserts.  Now multiply that total number by ten, and you get approximately the number above -- of stars in the *known* universe.  The stars not visible to us by even our most powerful telescopes may equal the visible figure -- or be multiples of it.  Mind-boggling, no?\n\nSo to your planet question:  One next has to wonder how many of those stars are actually a sun to one or more planets (hey, I just noticed that was your wording, too; I like it).  Does every star have at least one planet revolving about it?  \n\nWell let's just be very conservative and say that there are only 70 sextillion stars in the *entire* (not just known) universe.  Let's further say that only one tenth of those stars (7 sextillion) have a planet orbiting them.  If we assume merely one planet per sun, then there must be at least 7 sextillion planets in the universe.  Using our sand analogy, that's a planet per grain of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts!\n\nAnyone who believes that is a reasonable number must surely wonder, "How could there NOT be living beings somewhere other than the earth?"  \n\nOf course not all planets will have life on them.  Earth may be the only body in our solar system, for example, which does harbor life, though at least one of Jupiter's moons is also a tantalizing possibility.\n\nIf only one out of a *thousand* of those planets are earth-like -- in the sense that they are rocky, not gaseous, and contain liquid water -- there may be 7 quintillion earth-like planets in the universe.  That's 7,000 thousand trillion.  I've been very careful, but if my math or estimates are off by even a factor of a *billion* there could be 7,000 million earth-like planets in the universe, a figure I think is extremely low.\n\nThese figures seems to jibe fairly well with an estimate of the number of earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, found at space.com (the bottom link in my sources) -- 30 billion, from a 2002 article.\n\nMy personal belief, based on numbers such as this, and on the likelihood that any planet supporting life may contain (extremely conservatively!) a thousand species...  is that there are *billions* of intelligent species in the universe outside the earth.\n\nSince you were wise to point out that we reside in the Milky Way galaxy, which is only one of perhaps billions of galaxies, you might be fascinated by the Hubble photo in the references, below.  I liked it so much, myself, that I made it my new desktop wallpaper.\n\nFinally, on the specific subject of life, there is a well-known method of estimating the number of intelligent, communicating civilizations, called the Drake Equation.  In my references you can see how it works to condense all the possible stars down by multiple factors, leaving the fraction which we may be able to communicate with, or at least hear from!  \n\nHappy dreaming (for me, too), and I hope you are as inspired by all this as I am.   :-)
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!
437476
I think given the magnitude of space: the galaxies already discovered, the hundred billion stars in each, the number of planets revolving about them. I find it inconceivable by pure chance alone that earth is the only body with life in the entire universe. To even think so I would feel to be the utmost presumptious conceit of man.\nI even feel that with the hundred billion stars in our galaxy, life in some shape or form must exist within our galaxy in several separate locations. How many life forms at our stage of existence or beyond is another matter entirely, with the knowledge we have now how many madmen does it take to send us all to oblivion, kingdom come or whatever. All this must be thrown into the equation.How many civilisations can survive and for how long? It is my belief though that within the next couple of decades, as our listening apparatus improves by leaps and bounds, that an unmistakeable signal will come, either intentional or not has no bearing on the matter, which will answer your question once and for all. The answer will be YES.\nThere was an unconfirmed signal on 15th August 1977 never repeated, that could have come from the Sagittarius region: i.e. toward the centre of our galaxy. You never know.
5355
No one knows.\n\nThere are about 10 planets in our solar system, depending on whom you ask.\n\nAround 100 planets have been detected in other solar systems.\n\nThere are at least 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (ours).\n\nIf the average number of planets per star is 10, then there are 2000 billion or 2 trillion planets in our galaxy.\n\nNo one knows how many billion galaxies are in the Universe.