If you encountered another spaceship in space, with the sun behind it, would you even see it?

Question

Other than the sun, there would be nothing else to illuminate the ship in space, would there?

A further aspect to this question would be, if you were in deep interstellar space, would you be able to see anything at all, excpt for stars?

I only asked this because in science fiction movies, spaceships are always fully illuminated and I always thought that was odd.

Answer 1

What do you mean by "see it"?

First of all the ship itself would probably be emitting something..maybe even visible light.

Also if the sun (or a nearby star) were "behind it" that would mean that star was "in front" of you...depending on what your ship was made of, you might be reflecting light from your ship onto their ship..making it visible.


And all of this is just talking about visible light...your ship sensors would probably be able to detect radio waves...heat emissions and a whole slew of other things that would make it detectable.

Answer 2

well you would be able to see the light illuminated through the other spaceships portholes or some other type of opening. Plus you'd probably have like radar or sonar or some fancy detector

Answer 3

You would see it in two scenarios:

1. When seen directly against the sun, of course (silhouette)
2. Once you come close enough to benefit from perspective distortion, as it would be unavoidable for 3-dimensional shapes on it not to reflect, as they take angles that are not head-on toward you.

Answer 4

We can't see the moon if it is between earth and the sun.
So, in your case the other spaceship will not be seen.
But if the moon is there in the other side, it will reflects the sun light to that ship.

Answer 5

If it was DIRECTLY in front of the Sun, you would see it as a dark silhouette. If it were close enough to a planet or Moon, then reflected light from the planet or moon would show it. But otherwise, you are right, it would be invisible.

Answer 6

If it were directly in front of our sun you would not be able to see it with the naked eye as you cannot see either Mercury or Venus as they pass in front of the sun. You only see Venus and Mercury when they are not directly in line of the sun

Answer 7

nothing else but the sun would be able to illuminate it due to its proximity, but depending on the context of your question the moon and earth would too.

Answer 8

Don't forget, the movies are not real and they can change reality. Now if it was possible, it depends on your sensor range...