why is the outer space dark even if the sun gives out light all the time?

Answer 1

Because the light of the sun can reach only till a certain extent compared to the vast universe.

Answer 2

The outer space has no small physical boundary for all the light to collect and bright up the environment. The universe or 'outer space' is extremely big to do that. it's like when you have a torch and you shine in on a dark road- the whole place won't light up because it is far too big but yet in a small enclosed room, it would light up substantially. Outer space does have a little amount of brightness though. To start a discussion or post a question on space and astronomu visit astrowhiz on Yahoo Groups. Become a member!!

Answer 3

The colors you see don't depend on the amount of light, but how that light reaches your eye.

On earth, light is scattered by the atmosphere, and bounces off the ground, the buildings, the trees, and everything else you see. In outer space, there is nothing there to reflect the light back to your eye, so space appears black.

By the way, this is the opposite of "Why is the sky blue". The answer there is that when the earth's atmosphere scatters the sun's light, the slower wavelengths (reds/oranges/yellows) don't come through as well as the faster ones (violets and blues). Our eyes pick up blue much better than violet, so the sky appears blue.

Answer 4

There is nothing in "space" for the light from the sun to brighten up.

The sky is blue and other colors only because the light from the sun passes through the air.

The sky is always black and starry on the moon even in the middle of the day for this same reason.

Answer 5

There is no light in outer space though there sun is out there because light can only be observed when it strikes something gets reflected and come back to us .....
But since there is nothing out there in the open space we see only darkness. and the heavenly masses i.e. the planets can be seen as the rays of the sun strike and reflect back . thus they are visible in the form of light....

Answer 6

because undemanding rays choose a medium, an atom, to have interaction with. An atom absorbs a undemanding ray, that's electrons flow to a higher licensed "orbit" -- the atom receives "excited" -- and then at the same time as it calms down back, it emits that straightforward (a photon) in a particular wavelength. If the wavelength is contained in the seen undemanding spectrum, the cones on your eyes will interpret that straightforward as "blue" or "red" or maybe with. because area is for all ability and purposes a vaccuum, there are literally not adequate atoms to make a undemanding prepare. yet if you discover your self in area orbiting the moon, there is lots of light. The solar's rays meditated off the moon with the help of interacting with the atoms of the moon's floor will seem as "white" or "yellow." also, the large Nebula In Orion is yet another get at the same time of light in action. The starlight of new child stars strips the electrons of the atoms contained in the molecular cloud the celebrities formed in, ionizing those molecules and making them glow. So, that's no longer "darkish" accessible.

Answer 7

the main reason for us seeing colours would be scattering of light by particles which makes any light visible(tyndall effect)since the outer space is nothing but vaccum it is black however u may ask what about the planets and other heavenly bodies then ...these reflect light and make themselves visible but the left out lite jus passes by leavin nothin to reflect it hence the colour black........

Answer 8

Space is black because you can’t see all of the light and radiation given off by the stars, and what you can see is like pinpricks on a huge dark curtain.

Imagine a sheet of plywood that is painted black and measures 6 feet by 8 feet. Then sprinkle 6 pieces of glitter on the plywood, making sure that no piece of glitter is within 1 foot of each other. Now you have an idea of just how vast interstellar space is. Take two boards like this and put them on a black road 500' feet from each other. Now you have an idea of how vast the space is between galaxies. Now put up a 30’ tall later and climb to the top of it and look down at the black plywood. You are getting an idea of how small the stars really are when compared to space, except that my analogy is probably too tight and too small. It is impossible to really understand the distances we are talking about. With all this huge volume the few photons given off by stars are lost in the vast expanse. Some of the light given off by stars, that we can see, was first emitted before the dinosaurs were around. It takes that long for light to travel across the vast distance.

Light doesn't continue forever in space, because space is not a pure vacuum. There are a lot of planets, stars, and dust that can block the light. The Crab Nebula is a famous astronomical feature. It is a cloud that looks sort of like a Crab. It actually is the remnants of a supernova--just a huge cloud of dust.

If you are out in space then you have two conditions, you are either in bright light or in darkness. The only time you can be in darkness is when you are hiding behind something. The Space Station orbits the Earth in space. It goes from hundred's of degrees in the sunlight, to hundreds of degrees below zero when it passes behind the earth. This is only caused by the light of our sun. When you are in space the sun is brilliant. Imagine being in a totally dark movie theater and a kid walks in with those shoes the light up. This is what it is like in space. If you got really close to those shoes, 1’ away, then it would be like you are around a star. But, if you are sitting in a seat then you can barely see those shoe lights. The further you are away from the kid’s shoes the smaller the light source is.

Then there is the frequency of light that you are looking at. We can only see a narrow part of the spectrum. If you could see radio or cosmic waves then space would appear almost white. You just can't see all the power given off by stars and our sun. Imagine a line 18" long, we can only see about 1" of that line. Stars broadcast on almost the entire length of that line.

The Earth protects us and blocks a lot of light and radiation. The strong magnetic field goes out into space. When a solar storm occurs this magnetic field intercepts a lot of the energy and passes it away from the Earth. Some of the radiation can get into our atmosphere at the poles, because the lines of the magnetic field go into the Earth there. When some of this solar radiation gets past the magnetic field it creates the Northern Lights. Our atmosphere is pretty thick. On the scale of our planet it would be like a thin coat of water on a marble, but the Earth is huge, and that thin coat of water represents an air blanket that is almost 2 miles tall. Our atmosphere blocks a lot of the radiation coming in. Some scientific observations cannot be made because of our thick atmosphere that blocks this radiation. (Scientist that want to see this radiation need to install a telescope in space—that’s why the Hubble Telescope is so important. If can see a much broader spectrum then we can.) If the Earth did not protect us like this then radiation would soon sweep across the Earth and kill all life on land or in the air. Only the fish would survive.

Some of the radiation generated by stars, X-Rays, Radio Waves, etc. is very powerful. If you could see this radiation then space would appear to be white. You can only see a tiny part of the radiation put out by the sun. Look at a 60 watt incandescent light bulb. It is brilliant if you get to within 1” of its surface. This is how it is around our sun. If you put that bulb in a totally dark theater and go to the other end then the light would be much less. This is how it would look near Jupiter. Make that dark theater stretch 1 mile with you at one end and the bulb at the other end and it would be similar to how the sun looks from Pluto. To see what it looks like if you are looking at a nearby star, the curvature of the Earth would get in the way. You would have to put that 60 watt bulb on an airplane. To see a star that is a medium distance then you would have to put that light on the Space Station. Again, this analogy is probably too conservative. The distances involved are just to big to really think about, except in an abstract form.

Space is black because you don't see all of the light. It is either blocked or you can't see that part of it. A photon from a star may travel for billions of light years before a dust particle blocks it, but space is so vast that it can be a near perfect vacuum and still have enough matter in it to block a lot of light. The more powerful radiation though can get through that dust and if you could see it then space would appear to be white with all the radiation. The atmosphere blocks a lot of the light from the sun and other stars, so when you look up at night you see a black sky with billions of pin points of light in it.

Answer 9

the sunlight on earth fall on the earth's dust particles & reflect. but there r no actual dust particles in space therefore the sunlight don't refect. it is bcoz of reflection that we have light on earth & not in space.

Answer 10

No atmosphere to reflect light.