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Ok guys, my 10 year old asked this - keep it simple. No Albert Einstein answers please.

2007-02-09 23:28:30 · 20 answers · asked by baldyoldgit 2 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

20 answers

well, our atmosphere reflects the light from the sun's spectrum and expands it all through the sky. Usually that's why we see orange & red and sunrise and sunset. And Blue during the day. The color of the spectrum is expanded over the whole atmosphere. If we did not have an atmosphere it would always be black skyed like on Mercury or the moon.

2007-02-09 23:33:08 · answer #1 · answered by Cuddly Lez 6 · 1 0

Hi,

O.K. simple...space is NOT black. The darkness is merely an absence of light. The reason the earth, and other astronomical bodies appear light is the light travels from illuminated bodies, such as the sun and other stars, and reflects from the surface that is exposed to the light. The light is invisible until it reflects from something.

Look at the moon...at times, when full, it appears as a full cicle, at others as a crescent. The circular shape is still there, but the angle of light reflecting precludes light falling all over the globe.

So...no Albert Einstein, just straightforward explanations (and your kid would probably understand Albert better than we could!)

Good luck bringing up your children.

Cheers,

BobSpain

2007-02-09 23:54:50 · answer #2 · answered by BobSpain 5 · 1 0

Space is 'black', because there is no light there. Space is the vast majority nothing and a vacuum.

When you say space is light on earth, i'm unsure what you're refering too. If you mean during daytime, well that's the sun lighting up the sky my friend.

And if you're refering to the stars, then that is the stars (which are just like our own sun) making some light.

I think what's most likely is background light - You have a certain amount of ambient light even though you may not be near a street light or house or open fire, living in a town with millions of sources of light going on, they provide a little bit of background light wherever you are, which can light things up a little.

One thing is for certain though, space is empty and 'black' and not light.

2007-02-09 23:39:29 · answer #3 · answered by Adam L 5 · 0 0

... Assuming you are near a source of light (say our own Sun for example) ...

For light to be visible it needs to hit an object. Since space is largely an empty vacuum there is nothing for the light to hit and therefore you cannot see it.

You can demonstrate this simply by using a laser pen in a room. You cannot see the entire laser beam, only the 'dot' on the wall.

This is the same as having a 'black' space with just the sun visible (the red dot).

Put some smoke or heavy dust into the room and the entire laser beam becomes visible (as it is bouncing off the smoke and dust particles). This is what you seen on earth as the sunlight hits the atmosphere (and the planet itself).

Thus in space (say a view from the moon) is pretty much black as there is (literally) nothing for the light to bounce off of and become visible to us. (except for the earth which the light hits and thus is visible).

That is pretty simple, but it should make sense to your 10 year old.

2007-02-09 23:40:45 · answer #4 · answered by darklydrawl 4 · 1 0

Space isn't black as such, we just see an absence of light as being black, that's all. It is light on Earth during the day because of light from the sun, but when the Earth rotates so that the sun is on the other side of the planet, it is dark outside and we see the sky as black, except for the moon and stars.

2007-02-09 23:41:44 · answer #5 · answered by CLICKHEREx 5 · 0 1

Space is not black. Space is transparent - if space was black we wouldnt be able to see the moon the sun or any stars, would we?

Darkness is the absense of light. Its not a colour.

2007-02-09 23:31:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

easy is photons being absorbed via atoms and emitted interior the wavelengths of the seen spectrum. we gained't see radio waves or x-rays or gamma rays, yet they're all easy of diverse wavelengths. The seen spectrum wavelengths of light are an exceedingly tiny fraction of the selection of wavelengths that easy could have. anyplace there is count (atoms) and a easy source (stars) we are able to be sure easy. Emission nebulae are an occasion of that; so is the moon soaking up and reflecting the sunlight's easy. area is darkish while there is no count to soak up and emit photons.

2016-11-03 01:38:11 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

it's light because that's when that side of earth is facing the sun! the earth makes one rotation every 24 hours. so at night, one side is facing away from the sun, making the sky dark.

2007-02-09 23:31:26 · answer #8 · answered by stitchfan85 6 · 2 1

space is only black when you look away from the sun, when it is light on earth, it is light in space between the earth and the sun.

2007-02-09 23:35:26 · answer #9 · answered by dazemanus 2 · 1 2

light comes from the sun. you can see it when it's coming at you but not when it's going away from you. That's why space looks black when it's actually full of light.
If that don't work tell him it's the little man in the fridge.

2007-02-09 23:38:09 · answer #10 · answered by Ricky J. 6 · 0 2

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