is the night sky actually space?

Question

my friend says that you cant see beyond the atmosphere but i think that where the stars are thats space because if it wasnt then how can you see the stars! can anyone tell me who is right?

Answer 1

Of course you can see beyond the atmosphere; you can see the sun by day, and the stars by night. The blackness is space. you can't actuallly see it, in a way, because the blackness is nothingness. But it's space, all right.

Answer 2

You can't see beyond the atmosphere unless something outside it is self-illuminating or can reflect light. So, when you look up into the night sky, the dark bit is basically air between you and the atmosphere. It is dark because the sun, the closest star to Planet Earth is shining on other parts of the globe.

Stars are suns from other solar systems. They are very very far away from us (measured in light years). However, they are self-illuminating (like the sun), and the light they generate is so strong that you can see it from earth.

The moon does not generate light on its own. However, it has a surface that reflects light, and in this case, light from the sun. Again, the sun is very bright and even the reflection from the moon can penetrate the atmosphere, and appear to our naked eyes.

Imagine you are in a room without a window and any lights. You are completely in the dark and can see nothing. That is exactly like the sky at night. Now, if you have a torch and turn it on, you can see the source of light (the torch), but the room is still dark. The torch is like a star.

And when the torch is on, there many be certain reflections from the wall. That is like the moon reflecting light onto Earth.

Answer 3

Well, you know those sticky backed brightly colored stars you can buy and stick on the ceiling of your bedroom.?

That's what you are looking up at at night.

Every time a spaceship is sent up, the astronauts (that's the man who drives the spaceship, the man who does the cooking and the cleaner) they carry hundreds of these sticky backed brightly colored stars you can buy and stick on the ceiling of your bedroom.

Okay, they are a bit bigger - but not much - because you see space isn't as big as some people like to think.

Really.

Some scientists (those are the men in white coats that have bad haircuts - the men, not the coats) think that space is really, really big. Like, phew, you could walk for days and not get to the end - but astronauts know better.

The furthest you can go up is only half a mile.
That means the top of the Empire State building is almost touching the ceiling of space.

People who live on the top floor of the Empire State building lean out of the windows and stick their owns sticky backed stars up.

And there you are.
I'll leave it to you to work out who is right - you or your friend.

Answer 4

This is a major hoax that people have believed for too many years. The night sky is nothing more than a large, dark screen painted with so called "stars" on it. This is all done by the US Government in order to control people. Can you imagine how people would act if it was bright and sunny out all day .. without any night time darkness and stars ? People would go crazy after a short time. If you look carefully, when it is "night" .. place your finger up in the air as far as you can .. sometimes you can actually feel the large cardboard cut out that our Govt. has placed there. Good luck ! :)

Answer 5

We can see through the atmosphere at night and look into space, although it can be distorted by atmospheric conditions or affected by light pollution.
Viewing illuminated planets and moons local to us and bright stars. The link below has a good picture of the Starscape.

http://uk.geocities.com/[e-mail]/astrop.htm

Answer 6

Believe it or not, most solid matter like you or a table is composed mostly of space. I know this is hard to believe but it is true. It is because the distance between atoms and the distance between the nucleus of an atom and the electron are so great the area between them is "space". Space is space.

There are particles smaller than atoms flying around all over the place. They are called neutrinos. We can detect them but we cannot see one. These neutrinos are so small they can pass through your body and pass through without touching anything.

Answer 7

the stars that you see though our atmosphere are light beams and not actual stars you can go and grab. it is space but we have an ozone layer that holds in our air n that. the beams of light you see takes so long to reach us that the individual star may not exist but the light is still travelling. if you know what i mean.

Answer 8

You are both right well both half right. You can see into space but the stars appear how they acctually where about 40 million years ago.

Answer 9

youre both kinda right, and youre both kinda wrong. When there are stars out, yes youre looking into space. When there aren't any stars out youre looking at the clouds. Hope this helps

Answer 10

those are real stars. Actually, you can see about 2 million light years or so with your naked eye if the object is large enough. And because it takes several years for light to travel to us, we can view stars that are dead right now sometimes.