How Many Stars Does the Milky Way Galaxy Have?

How many stars does the Milky Way Galaxy have? NASA's website has published a post attempting to answer this question. However, it seems that answering this question is not as simple as counting the stars in the sky. There is no way to count each individual star in a galaxy. Therefore, one must proceed with estimation. But how can the number of stars in a galaxy be estimated? First, the mass of the galaxy must be calculated, and then it must be determined how much of this mass belongs to stars. Next, one must see how much the average star weighs. Then, this estimated mass is divided by the estimated mass of an average star. However, we do not even know how big an average star in the Milky Way is. For example, is our Sun an average star? How can we know? This is why estimating the number of stars is not an easy or even accurate task. Imagine you have a ten-kilogram bag. If you open the bag, you see some coins, along with some rice, chocolate, peas, beans, and other small items. You only see these at the top of the bag, and there may be other things inside the bag that you have no idea about. Now, suppose you want to guess the number of coins in this bag. This is a difficult task because you can only count the coins you see. On the other hand, you do not know if the distribution of the coins throughout the entire bag is the same as the part you can see. But let’s assume your guess is that ten percent of the bag's weight consists of coins. However, the weight and size of fifty-toman coins differ from one-hundred-toman coins. You need to consider an average weight. Now, apply this same bag analogy to the Milky Way Galaxy. You will realize that counting the stars in the galaxy is not an easy task at all. Nevertheless, astronomers make guesses. They say the number of stars in our galaxy is at least 100 billion and at most 400 billion stars. Although there are even higher estimates. Yes! The Milky Way Galaxy is indeed vast.