The known universe barely represents 4%, but that percentage is precisely where our ‘cosmic neighborhood’ is located, with our solar system and, specifically, our planet, Earth, coexisting in it.
When we look at the stars, we are unable to gauge at a glance how many we are looking at, since approximately 275 million new stars are born every day. It is just one example of how vast the universe is.
In our solar system, one of the planets that most attracts our attention due to its qualities is Saturn. Its magnificent rings have a diameter of 274,000 kilometers, 5 kilometers high and a width of such magnitude that it would fit 6 times the Earth. In addition, the particles that move and form the rings of this gas giant rotate at a speed of 48,000 km / h, more than a dozen times faster than a bullet.
Another planet in our neighborhood that is a colossus is Jupiter. It is so big that all the planets that exist in our solar system could fit inside it.
Our neighboring world, Mars, the red planet, also holds records. On Mars we find Mount Olympus, the largest volcano in the solar system.
One more example of the variety of our known universe is planet 55 Cancri e . It is approximately 41 light years distant from Earth. Measuring twice the size of Earth, this curious world is covered in graphite and diamond.
As we can see, space is home to thousands of wonders that, thanks to observations from telescopes such as Hubble, we have even been able to count the number of galaxies that the observable universe can contain. Until a few years ago, that number was estimated to be around 100,000 to 200,000 million galaxies. However, subsequent studies have suggested that the number of galaxies in the Universe could be 2 trillion, that is, 10 times more galaxies than previously believed.
You will find impressive photos in this space photo gallery. Some of the images of the universe have never been seen by the general public before, such as the spectacular galaxy images captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory or the unforgettable NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope images (such as the iconic image of ‘The pillars of creation’).
