Why do we see stars?

Question

I was looking at stars the other night and started thinking how strange it is that we can even see them. If they are so many light years away, how does that light travel so far as a single point of light that we see without dispersing? I would think that what we see might be more diffused and not a single point of light. I guess we're just seeing the most concentrated part of the light emmited by the star but I really don't know.

Answer 1

It has to do with the physical size of the stars and their luminosity. There's a couple of equations for it all, but basically it all boils down to the surface area facing us is immense and extremely bright. Also, most of the naked-eye stars are relatively close to us, within a thousand light years or so.

Answer 2

Interesting question...

First, in space there is nothing to diffuse the light coming from most of the stars. In some situations, however, there are massive dust clouds surrounding certain stars. Light from those stars is diffused or scattered by the dust.

Our own atmosphere does diffuse the light from stars somewhat. That prevents us from getting really good pictures of the most distant stars and galaxies. Only by moving our telescopes out into space have we been able to overcome that problem. Reference - Hubbel space Telescope, and future projects.

Certain galaxies are packed so densely with stars and dust that all we can see is a white glow from the general area of the particular galaxy. This also holds true of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy which looks like a dome of white light. No pin points of light there at all.

If you want to really be stupified, consider how big the book might be that cataloged all of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Most people say there are from 100 to 200 Billion of them. That book might have one line in it for each star, giving its location, distance from us, and magnitude. How big would a book be that had 200 Billion lines of type in it?

Answer 3

Very few of the photons reach us. But as the first answer said, stars are so massive, that the photons from the small part of the star that face Earth directly DO normally reach us, and we can see the star fairly well becasue there are so many...except when they are interrupted by dust particles in our own atmosphere.

Answer 4

It is amazing isn't it? And to think that some of those stars are not there anymore. We see photons that left their source of origin thousand of years ago, traveled thru the black matter of space to reach our eyes on a clear evening sky just to whisper to our ears a great truth "you are not alone in this vast universe"...

Answer 5

the most simple answer i can give you is that relatively speaking, there is nothing to diffuse the light coming towards us as space is at close to vaccum conditions

Answer 6

You only see very very little of the light that is actuall emitted, most of it misses you.

Answer 7

Not every one really looks at stars . nevertheless they exist for us to see and also keep astronomer busy trying to figure out the ridles of the Universe.