why is space black????

Question

right was watching a film and was intrigued when they were in space...

why is it that when you see a picture of 'outer space' its 'Black' with all the million's of stars!

my question is why black??? I meen I thought the universe was infinity???? so why is space seen to be black when there is no back drop and end for it to be a certain colour?

i dont not expect- just curious as to why black

Answer 1

The areas that are black is were no light is present.

Answer 2

Because all the stars are too far apart to create a dazzling field of light.

Also there has been no conclusive evidence to suggest whether or not the Universe is infinite, it's still just a theory. Incidentally one of the arguments for the Universe NOT being infinite is that if it was, there would be an infinite number of celestial bodies and therefore space could NOT be black...good eh.

Answer 3

Because the universe is not infinite, and all the stars do not congregate in one area. The light from distant galaxies is so weak by the time it reaches our planet, that we cannot see it.
Think of car headlights, they light up a fair way, then everything becomes dimmer, until all is darkness, what happened to the light?
An observer in the darkness sees the focal points of light, but not the vehicle behind them.
On a Summers day from outside look into a house, it seems so dark inside doesn't it; yet go in and you can read a book.

Answer 4

Obler's 'paradox'. You would think an infinite array of stars would not only be blinding but also emit a lethal flux of cosmic rays. (not to mention an infinite grav potential)
There is a resolution of this even with an infinite static universe- the spacing of the stars could be such that the sum to infinity of all the luminous contrbutions was itself finite (remember the inverse square law)
As it happens, with the current theory of the expanding universe, the cosmic red shift means the viisible flux gets progressively shifted towards the invisible radio wavelengths.
If you could 'see' in that spectral region the sky would look 'microwave' coloured!

Answer 5

Space is black because the ratio of light (stars, planets, magellanic clouds, etc) is a lot smaller than the area, which is said to be infinite. There simply is not enough light to light up space.

Imagine standing at night on the centre of the pitch in a football stadium in total darkness. If you lit a match you would not light up the whole stadium.

Answer 6

The regions of the sky that you perceive as black merely lack the materials for the light to bounce off, ie, dust and gas, asteroids and comets. The moon is a perfect example. Sometimes It is really bright in the sky, other times you can't see It because the earth is between It and the Sun and so there is no reflected light.

Answer 7

The black is an absence of light, and there is an absence of light because of a lack of atmospheric particles to scatter the light from the stars and planets - and our own sun. There are billions of stars, but there is lots and lots of empty space in between them.

Answer 8

Black is the absence of color (light).

Reason all the stars don't light up the sky is that the universe is expanding so by the time the light from the very farthest stars gets to us, the light wave has been streched to the point we don't see it.

Answer 9

Because light is invisible.

While OBJECTS that are placed in its path can themselves be seen as the light is reflected off them, SPACE, by definition, means 'the absence of objects': nothing!

And if our retina detect 'nothing' the brain registers that particular sensation which we happen to have described as black.

Answer 10

In darkness everything looks black because it cannot reflect light to show its true colour (or color if you're yankee). Eg red reflects the red colour of the spectrum and absorbs the rest. If you had enough light to light up all of space you would see its true colour.