by JennyMP3 on January 19th, 2006

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Approximately how many atoms are there in the known universe?

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Answers. 26 helpful answers below.

by Alatea on January 21st, 2006
"Just to give you some perspective on how many atoms it might be, the number of atoms alone in the graphite in your pencil is about 25000000000000000000000 atoms.

But, we should probably give you a number to use, just in case you are interested. This won't include dark matter, brown dwarf stars, dwarf galaxies and such, but we will count the atoms in a star and multiply this by the number of stars in the Universe, since that is mostly what we can see when we look out.

A typical star weighs about 2x10^33 Grams, which is about 1x10^57 atoms of hydrogen per star... That is a 1 followed by 57 zeros.

A typical galaxy has about 400 billion stars so that means each galaxy has 1x10^57 X 400,000,000,000 = 5x10^68 hydrogen atoms in a galaxy. There are possibly 80 billion galaxies in the Universe, so that means that there are about: 5x10^68 X 80,000,000,000 = 4x10^79 hydrogen atoms in the Universe. But this is definately a lower limit calculation, and ignores many possible atom sources. That number is a 4 followed by 79 zeros."

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct98/905633072.As.r.html
http://www.sunspot.noao.edu/sunspot/pr/answerbook/universe.html
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- I just found another 17 atoms under my bed. You should include these too.
  
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  by Southpaw Pete on January 21st, 2006
- A one followed by a whole page of zeros. In short: bigger than a breadbox.
  
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  by RedJohn on January 21st, 2006
- Matthew's feedback is entirely useless without a detailed comment. That's not fair.
  
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  by Relsqui on January 23rd, 2006
- And now ... the dark matter!
  
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  by Quirkie on January 25th, 2006
- Ahh it cant be too bad if we're only looking for atoms, at least we aren't doing a search for the amount of energy left untapped in things like the CMB
  
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  by H on August 28th, 2007
- Alatea, check my answer, you'll see the total.
  
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  by Farino on August 29th, 2007
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by PokerPaul on January 28th, 2006
Quite a few.
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- That's taking the word 'approximately' to a new level.
  
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  by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on February 10th, 2006
- Not funny
  
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  by lexicon on February 13th, 2006
- Wow! That many?! That's a lot!
  
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  by Answers101 on March 21st, 2006
- fails to provide an accurate answer-- quite a few doesn't answer the question
  
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  by Beverlyofhills on May 11th, 2006
- Inadequate documentation and references.
  To be a believable answer you must refer to a source for your information.
  Here, you may refer to my answer, and thus your answer will be "proven".
  http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2305194
  
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  by Trione on February 17th, 2008
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by Farino on August 29th, 2007
The amount of Hydrogen atoms being around 4*10^79, which is about 74% of all of the atoms in the universe. This gives us around 5.41*10^79 atoms in total.
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- thats a lot!
  
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  by Seraphim Shinobi on February 8th, 2008
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by adam konter on May 28th, 2008
you are all way off. there are 876567156752200475756776661534877309802732897634287462487235648298098154823154287443244346766570808 atoms in the known universe. i counted them.
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- .....darn! Missed by three!
  
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  by Superquack on May 28th, 2008
- I've just destroyed 10,000,000,000 of them
  
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  by Fred Bradshaw on October 26th, 2009
- You probably counted the stuff in dust bunnies. Since no one knows where dust bunnies come from I didn't count those.
  
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  by DBishop on May 28th, 2010
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by Anonymous on February 8th, 2008
No way to measure. Humans don't even have an accurate estimate of how large the universe is.
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by Nullifidian2224 on February 8th, 2008
I don't think we have numbers that big.
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by Magenta on August 29th, 2007
One.
It simply exists in many places simultaneously. :)
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- Trippy =)
  
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  by Veritas cant turn down a woman in red on February 8th, 2008
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by CUNxTime on January 13th, 2007
If you believe in the cosmic egg theory, the amount of atoms (or the energy equivalent) would be 1 followed by 89 zeros. That corrisponds to the primordial 'heavy' atom dividing by 2, 10 times in each of 27 steps.
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by The Godfather on March 29th, 2006
10 to power 60. Although this is an estimate of the KNOWN universe.
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- fails to offer any cited documentation as proof.
  
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  by Answers101 on March 31st, 2006
- lacks evidence
  
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  by Beverlyofhills on April 1st, 2006
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by Trione on February 17th, 2008
Quite a few.
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- This answer is proven to be correct by a reference to:
  http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/42241
  Thus, it is not just my opinion. It is well-documented by others, as well.
  
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  by Trione on February 17th, 2008
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by Scooot on January 10th, 2008
Lots
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by Zigzag on August 28th, 2007
To quote Carl Sagen "billions and billions and billions..." Actually times a few billions of billions.
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by JobeMaster on August 28th, 2007
10^85 approximately

I believe that this will be proven to be a gross underestimate as we discover further galaxies and even universes. And black holes of course, how can we even begin to measure these?
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by stubborn9 on January 23rd, 2007
4 X 1068 X 8 X 1010 = 3 X 1079
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- I got docked for a guess.It's all good.
  
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  by stubborn9 on January 23rd, 2007
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by anonymous on January 23rd, 2007
WOW!!! thats a completely uncalcuable answer, since we dont even know how big the universe is.

Even if we did I dont think anyone could answer this question with anything other than an opinion.
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by Chris on May 26th, 2008
There are 11 atoms in the known universe.
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- Very good. Now name them... not the stupid scientific name, but what their homies call them!
  
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  by Zigzag on May 26th, 2008
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by Fieldandstream30s on February 8th, 2008
How much time do you have?
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by Tamilze on February 8th, 2008
There are over one billion in the width of a piece of paper (that's tha part you get paper cuts on). So....a lot, I guess.
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by Tespot was told she looks like a koala on February 8th, 2008
Googleplex
(10 to the 1,000,000 power)
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- A googol is 10^100.
  A googolplex is 10^googol, or 10^(10^100).
  
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  by Trione on February 17th, 2008
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by Not so Loony gone Ape on May 28th, 2008
With all the atoms that disappear into black holes, then moving through worm holes and reappearing in parallel universes, there is such a to-ing and fro-ing that I haven't managed to get an exact count. It's certainly a challenge.
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by AnswerBrain on November 17th, 2010
A pencil holds up to 250000000000000000 atoms, VY CEPHI, pencils needed, around 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (9085 more zeroes).

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (9085 more zeroes) x age of universe = ?
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by DBishop on May 28th, 2010
There are 148359732158746589321548963574012548963014789563257
4025941038732584102589632842581 atoms in the universe.
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by Arron_S6391 on April 5th, 2011
there is 8 googol atoms in the universe (1.0 X 10^800) thats 1 followed by 800 zeros
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by Fred Bradshaw on October 23rd, 2009
The observable universe (not including black holes and other unobservable objects)is probably between 0.79 and 0.81 googols according to Wikipedia(a googol being 1 followed by 100 zeros. (I dont know of any more accurate estimate than this).
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by Beggarjim on March 25th, 2010
There are exactly 1 GOOGOL atoms in the know universe. In fact, there is always 1 GOOGOL atoms in the known universe at any one time.
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by Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today on May 28th, 2008
A Gazillion or perhaps a Krillion of them.
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