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by htja5721 on March 26th, 2008

htja5721

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If the universe is large and there are many stars in the universe, then why is the night sky still dark and not glowing with light from the stars?

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Answers. 9 helpful answers below.

  • by Im Alec has abandoned this account on March 26th, 2008

    Im Alec has abandoned this account

    Look up "Olbers paradox". Becasue the universe is not infinite in time, and light takes time to travel.

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  • by Sandman on September 22nd, 2008

    Sandman

    In fact, the night sky is never "dark." Let your eyes adjust and you will see that starlight lights, however faintly, the surface of the Earth.
    However, the remote reaches of space do not glow because, as many others have said, the stars are so incredibly far away and far apart.
    Our Sol, who can burn out your visual purple in a minute or so, is not at all bright when seen from 30 trillion miles away.

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  • by Orangy Energy on March 26th, 2008

    Orangy Energy

    If you look carefully and allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness you will see more and more stars come into focus. The sky isn't lit up because most are millions of miles away and therefore dim.
    there is one closer star that is very bright and thats the sun! which certainly lights up the sky.

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  • by Tirthadeva on March 26th, 2008

    Tirthadeva

    Imagine 1,000 people with flashlights pointed at your face right in front of you.
    Now, imagine the same 1,000 people are 1,000,000,000 miles away.
    Light diffuses over distance.

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  • by Skillet Rocks on March 26th, 2008

    Skillet Rocks

    Because the stars are billions of lightyears away thus they dont preduce alot of light or energy

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  • by debodun on March 26th, 2008

    debodun

    Also there a lot of dust and gas in the galaxy that blocks the light. That's why we can't see the galactic hub that's in Sagittarius.

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  • by Jimmyp on March 26th, 2008

    Jimmyp

    On a moonless night, go far away from the city lights, turn off your flash light and look up at the Milky Way. I think you will be impressed.

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  • by Anonymninja on March 26th, 2008

    Anonymninja

    Because of your first assumption: The universe is large.
    It takes billions of years for the light of distant stars to reach us, and the universe is not that old (well, technically it's something like 13.7 billion years old, but there are probably stars and galaxies farther away). I read once that in order for the sky to be bright at night, the universe would have to be at least 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years old (or 10^23).

    Now, I'm not an astronomer, so that probably didn't make sense.
    If you're serious about the question, look up "Olbers' paradox" in Google.

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  • by Anon y mouse on March 26th, 2008

    Anon y mouse

    Because you can only see around 2000 or so stars with the naked eye. The others are too far away.

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