Counting creatures

The number of galaxies and stars in the universe once used to be "infinitesimal." With powerful telescopes and computers, however, astronomers were able to churn out figures.

Through the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers were able to see and count about two trillion galaxies in the observable universe in 2016, Space.com reported, citing a study published in the journal, Nature.

The author of the study, Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, told Live Science that there were about 100 million stars in the average galaxy. But another estimate says there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, where the solar system is located, according to Space.com.

The University reported that the Hubble has discovered about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. That figure is 1 followed by 24 zeros.

If scientists were able to count the number of galaxies and stars, they can also count living creatures on Earth.

One study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week reported an estimate of a particular insect's total population.

Sabine S. Nooten, an insect ecologist, temporary principal investigator at the University of Würzburg in Germany and co-lead author of the study, told CNN that the previous estimate of the said insect's population indicated by scientific literatures were basically educated guesses.

Nooten said their counting method involved synthesizing data from a lot of empirical studies.

The authors identified and assessed 465 suitable studies in the past 80 years, encompassing 1,306 sampling locations, covering all continents and major biomes, according to CNN.

Based on the data, Nooten's team of researchers counted 20 quadrillion ants on Earth at any given time. The figure includes three quadrillion ants in tropical and subtropical regions, such as South American forests, CNN said.

Study authors said the figure is still conservative. Co-lead author Patrick Schultheiss, a temporary principal investigator at the University of Würzburg, suggested that non-scientists and students contribute data set for their study by "simply collecting leaf litter, getting all the ants out and counting how many there are."