Follow up to a previous question.Why doesn't the sun shine in space?

Question

Thanks to everyone who answered.I get why it doesn't shine in space.Nothing to reflect off of.So does that mean that if someone holds a little compact mirror towards the sun, while in space ofcourse, the light will shine or would it have to be a huge contraption? Sry if it seems silly to some.I just always have questions.Thanks for even reading.

Answer 1

The sun does shine in space, but you can't tell because there is nothing to reflect off of. If you use a mirror to reflect the sun in space, it will reflect the light in the same manner and intensity as here on Earth. You won't be able to view the reflected beam with your eyes unless part of the beam is reflected directly into your eye, which is not a good idea, by the way. When Astronauts go on space walks, their suits are 50% illuminated by the sun just as any other heavenly body is illuminated, including the Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, asteroids, etc. If you were standing on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, you would see a rather bright yellowish star in the constellation Cassiopeia. That would be our sun, definitely shining across over four light years of empty space. With a really good telescope you could even make out our sun while standing on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy, shining across ~2,400,000 light years of empty space. So yes, the sun does shine in space.

Answer 2

The simple answer is that the sun DOES shine in space. You just can't see it.

Think about how your eyes work. A photon leaves the sun, travels through space, and then hits the back of your eye. Unless the photon hits the back of your eye, you are incapable of telling if a photon is there.

In space there are huge numbers of photons zinging around all the time. You just can't see them because your eye isn't there.

Another good way to picture this is to turn on a flashlight. You KNOW the light is coming from the bulb and filling a cone of air until some object gets in the way. But you don't see a lit cone of air... you only see the circle that the light makes on the object that got in the way. If you're in a dusty room or you have a spray bottle, you can use dust or water as the object that gets in the way, and thus see where the boundaries of the cone are, but you NEVER see the cone.

The same thing goes if you had a mirror in space. You would just be giving the photons zinging around a path to actually get to your eye. This is what the moon does! Light from the sun bounces off its surface and gets to you during the night. A smaller mirror would work just as well. And, as I mention before, if you were in space you wouldn't even need the mirror - you could look straight at the sun just fine (though I wouldn't recommend staring at the sun, even on Earth!).

So the sun DOES shine in space just fine. You just can't see all the activity that's going on. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

There would be a reflection in the mirror itself, but again because there are very few particles with a great deal of space between each it would not reflect a beam of light that could be detected off of the mirror.

Answer 4

Hi. Two things affect the reflected light. Size (diameter) of the reflecting surface and % of reflectivity. 98% is considered pretty good. Now a 6" mirror would only reflect a tiny beam of sunlight. Make sense?

Answer 5

I don't know who told you it doesn't shine in space; they couldn't be more wrong. The intensity of sunlight in space is incredibly higher than on earth due to the lack of any filtering from the air. That's the reason it is so intense--nothing to reflect/disperse from. Look at the pics of the Space Station.......

Answer 6

extremely, the solar does shine in area. It in simple terms would not seem obvious by way of fact there is not something for it to reflect off of. in case you seem on the meditated solar on the face of the moon you will discover this.

Answer 7

Yes, it will reflect light, astronauts noticed little reflecting particles outside their windows.

Answer 8

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