Moses 1:33, 35, 38 And worlds without number have I created…But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them. ...And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.
Moses 7:30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations;
So just how big is the universe?
With the help of the Internet and study that my father has done, let me give you some details about just how big the universe is believed to be. But first, a science lesson…
The distances, even to the stars within our own galaxy, are so enormous we must use two special techniques to express the distances. The first is scientific notation, or expressing numbers in powers of ten. The second, invented for astronomy, is the “light year”. This is the distance that light will travel in a year. If we could travel at the speed of light, it would take 1.28 seconds to travel from the earth to the moon.
Light travels at 168,000 miles per second which equates to 5,870,000,000,000 miles per year, or about 6 trillion miles per year. Expressed using scientific notation this is 6 X 10 to the twelfth power, or 6 with 12 zeroes after it.
186 000 miles/sec x 60 sec/min x 60 min/hr x 24 hr/day x 365 days/yr = 5,870,000,000,000 miles or a light year
The size estimates of the universe have evolved as telescopes have improved to probe deeper into space.
In the 1950s, the universe was thought to be one billion light years in diameter (6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles, or 6 with 21 zeroes after it).
In 1978, the estimated size of the universe was increased to 16 billion light years (with us at the center because we look outward in all directions, and we seem to be at the center according to astronomers).
In 1987, astronomers discovered galaxy 3C-326.1 at a distance of more than 12 billion light years and only ¾ the distance to the “edge” of the known universe – estimated then to be as wide as 32 billion light years. (Note that a quick check of Wikipedia indicates that the edge of the known universe is now believed to be 46.5 billion light years away, but I didn’t want to re-do the math in the following paragraph.)
If the estimated 32 billion light years is correct, the universe we can “see” with radio telescopes is about 200 billion trillion miles across, or 2X10 to the 23rd power number of miles (or 2 with 23 zeroes after it). This means that a light that flashes tonight on the outer edge of the universe will take 16 billion years to travel to where we are, and another 16 billion years to reach the opposite edge of the universe.
