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How many stars there are in the Universe today is something that scientists can never give an exact number as the Universe is a vast place; a lot is still unknown and there is much more out there to observe. Their telescopes cannot reach every little nook and corner of the Universe to count the stars. Just like the population of people and places, stars too are populating the galaxy and entire Universe and also returning as dust to the darkness of the Nebula and protostar stage to add to the making and beginning of a new star to be born. As a result the number of stars in the Universe is an estimate and it is not still known exactly how many stars are in the Universe to date.

The Universe has a lot of galaxies and in these galaxies are the stars. A galaxy has the making of the stars in the clouds of dust and gas where stars are formed and created along with the stellar winds of the galaxy. It is in the "Nebula" stage where the gas is collected for the star to form itself along with the dust in the darkness of it forming to become fueled and nuclear so as to be seen in its bright magnitude, glowing hot energy.

As more and more of the gas, mostly hydrogen, is pulled together with gravity it then creates a cloud of gas that starts to spin. As it spins faster and faster it gets so hot that nuclear fusion happens from the huge amount of energy building, within its core center so it starts to glow. When it goes into this stage of a glowing cloud it is then called a "Protostar".

When in the protostar stage the star continues to grow till it has pulled all its hydrogen into it core center. With the hydrogen as with helium it will grow till it cannot grow any more. The glowing hydrogen/helium cloud will collapse and all the fragments are the stars that form from the protostar stage. This is how a main sequence star is created so that a star is born from: Nubula - Protostar - Main Sequence Star.

How long the star lives is determined by how big it is and how it uses up its energy and at what rate of speed it burns its hydrogen. A main sequence star can shine for millions of years or more. Stars form, are born, live and die and each one has its unique characteristics making each star its own individual.

There are too many stars for scientists to actually give an exact count. So other methods of estimating the total numbers of stars are used. There is in estimation of stars in the order of 1021 stars in our Universe. If you write that number out, it

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