Expert: Ed - 12/19/2005

Question
Hi,please could you work out how maney average size
stars would fit into a squair of 6000 light years
thanks chris

Answer
Chris,
Can you tell me if this question is for school, or just out of personal interest?  I think I would need to answer it differently, depending upon the context.  For exampl,e if this is a question for school, it might be some kind of trick question.  Even if you were somehow able to get trillions of stars to stay still long enough for you to push them all together, they would gravitate toward each other so powerfully that they would just form a HUGE black hole.  This could be what your teacher wants you to say.

Also, please tell me if you mean a cube that is 6000 light years on each side, or a cube that is a total of 6000 cubic light years.  There's a big difference.

Or, do you want to know how many stars there on, on average, in a 6000 cubic mile volume of space?  Please try to be more precise.  Or, hopefully I already answered your question at the beginning of this answer.

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed