Why is Outer space black?

Answer 1

Because outer space is so vast and huge. Light just travels and travels and travels it has nothing to reflect off of. The nearest light source is obviously the sun and even it is about 93 million miles and the light we get from it is about 8 minutes. Now imagine the light coming from are nearest star which is about 4.5 light years away. That means the light we are getting from that is 4.5 years old by the time it reaches us. Also you can throw in the theory science is coming up with called "Dark Matter." Which is what they believe is made up of a lot giving it its blakc look. The sky is blue here on Earth because of our atmosphere.

Answer 2

This question is what is known as Olber's paradox. In the early 19th century it was a neat logical deduction, in the absence of equipment to verify the answer.
The reason is because space is not infinite and static, as was believed at the time. If it was and if stars were distributed through it more or less uniformly, the accumulated light we would see would be extremely bright. The whole sky would be lit up because every point in the sky ends up at a star. Even if they are far away, their collective light would make a black sky impossible.

Answer 3

One can only see a light or a color when the light is reflected, but below is a web site that, if true, may shed a whole different light on what can be seen in space, and is it a cover up? The section I am refering to is about 3/4 of the way through the article starting with the below:
"Vanguard note...
Another incredible chunk of information..."
If true the implication for science is huge.

Answer 4

Its because the backdrop is hiding all the stars and glitter that anyone can take. In fact, space is not black - the 'backdrop' is or appears as black.
If you travelled to the nearest corner of the universe it would still seem dark and there is the answer.
Space in itself is colourless - its seemingly endless portal toward other systems just hanging there.
Much like sea water - its not blue nor green- the backdrop makes it look different and thats all there is to it.
What the eye cannot see - the knowledge - will come after!
If you ever get to the ends-of-the universe come back and tell us what its really like!

Answer 5

Well, the sky is blue or white (from clouds) because of scattered sunlight in the atmosphere. Once you get above the atmosphere, most of the sky where there are no nearby stars or planets is dark. It is not black, however, just really faint. If you look with a large telescope in any direction, you'll find some light coming from any part of the sky. It's just faint, so it looks dark to the eye and to most cameras.

Answer 6

About 20 miles above the Earth, the sky appears black. So what happens between there and here? Light, you might know, travels in waves. And the WAVES of different colors of light are different LENGTHS. Sunlight is a mixture of all those different colors. When the sunlight travels through the thickest part of the atmosphere, the short wavelengths of blue light get scattered. So what we see when we look at the sky during the daytime is the scattered blue light.

Answer 7

It is not black it is clear. The color that you see is from the absence of light which makes it appear black, just like the sky is not blue, it just appears that way from the water vapor and whatnot in the atmosphere. Same thing on Mars, the sky appears a rusty color from all the iron oxide dust that is there.

The absence of light is darkness, not blackness.

I hope that helps.

Answer 8

There is nothing out there for the light to be reflected off of. The light travels through space with out of any loss. There is the distance decreases it inverse to the square of the distance.

Answer 9

Because space is so vast and the sources of light (stars) are relatively few in comparison to the large expanses.

Answer 10

Thats a good question,I dont really know,and I always wondered that.