In article , jacobnavia
writes:

Hubble observations point to a huge number of galaxies just beyond its
reach to detect. The sea of galaxies is not some invention I have
figured out.

But you seem to think that this idea is somehow ignored by the
community.

We know that the universe is approximately flat. Assuming a simple
topology, that means that it is either infinite or very much larger
than the particle horizon (the theoretical limit of how far we can
see; in practice that limit is essentially the last scattering surface
[which is operationally defined as the surface at which the universe
becomes optically thick]). So, essentially all astronomers in the
world agree that there are more galaxies than we can see, even more
than we could see with arbitrarily powerful instruments.

The moderator commented:

# 1. Viewing a body at thermal equilibrium isn't enough to get a black-body
# spectrum -- the body-being-viewd also has to be *optically thick*.
# The set of galaxies is not optically thick at most CMB wavelengths
# (we can see through it to see those more distant objects you just
# mentioned).

Right. I think that it was Hoyle or Burbidge---before the measurement
of the black-body spectrum---who pointed out that the energy in the CMB
is approximately the same as that which has been radiated by stars, so
in terms of order-of-magnitude back-of-the-envelope calculations, the
recycled starlight idea was valid. It appears to be just a coincidence,
though, and fails several predictions (black-body spectrum, power
spectrum of observed anisotropies, etc).

# 2. Any viable explanation for the CMB needs to be able to *quantitatively*
# match the CMB-anisotropy power spectrum, including the positions,
# heights, and widths of the 5-or-so peaks visible in the observed data.
# See, e.g., the nice graph in
# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic...ary_anisotropy
# The fact that the hot big bang model *can* quantitatively match
# this spectrum is a powerful argument in its favor. I've never seen
# a similar match from a sea-of-light/galaxies model. Is there one?

Note that the CMB power spectrum was a robust prediction long before any
peaks were observed. Yes, it depends on various parameters, but a) one
cannot just fit anything and b) the parameters which produce the best
fit have values which jibe well with other measurements.

quote
Astronomers came to the surprising conclusion that there are at least 10
times more galaxies in the observable universe than previously thought.
end quote

In the OBSERVABLE universe. They are talking about faint dwarf galaxies
here. Even in the intermediate neighbourhood of the Milky Way these are
hard to observe.

And all those galaxies are VERY far away. The Universe goes on and on
and on. We see no limit.

Yes, it might very well go on without limit, but a) this has nothing to
do with the number of galaxies in the OBSERVABLE universe and b) is
completely compatible with the big bang.