http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129142414.htm
The team's measurement, collected from Fermi data, has never been done before
Date:
November 29, 2018
Source:
Clemson University
Summary:
From their laboratories on a rocky planet dwarfed by the vastness of space, scientists have collaborated to measure all of the starlight ever produced throughout the history of the observable universe.
This map of the entire sky shows the location of 739 blazars used in the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s measurement of the extragalactic background light (EBL). The background shows the sky as it appears in gamma rays with energies above 10 billion electron volts, constructed from nine years of observations by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope. The plane of our Milky Way galaxy runs along the middle of the plot.
Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Putting a number on the amount of starlight ever produced has several variables that make it difficult to quantify in simple terms. But according to the new measurement, the number of photons (particles of visible light) that escaped into space after being emitted by stars translates to 4x10^84.
Or put another way: 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons.
Blazars are galaxies containing supermassive black holes that are able to release narrowly collimated jets of energetic particles that leap out of their galaxies and streak across the cosmos at nearly the speed of light. When one of these jets happens to be pointed directly at Earth, it is detectable even when originating from extremely far away. Gamma ray photons produced within the jets eventually collide with the cosmic fog, leaving an observable imprint. This enabled Ajello's team to measure the density of the fog not just at a given place but also at a given time in the history of the universe.
