Sunlight travels through the space before reaching the earth.?

Question

Sunlight travels through the space before reaching the earth. so the space between the sun and the earth is bright or dark?
if bright, why?
if dark, why?
is there any particle in the outer space?
or is it a vacuum-like condition?

Answer 1

Outside of the earth, space is dark.

Light cannot reach our eyes without first being reflected off of something, or travelling DIRECTLY to you. Light from the sun bounces off of things like trees, rocks, and your friend Stan, and then reaches your eyes.

Light that travels directly to you from the sun can be visible too, but it's very strong and can blind you.

There are a few particles floating around in outer space, but for the most part, it's a vacuum.

And since it's a vacuum, there's no light bouncing off of anything, and so it's dark.

Answer 2

It's hard to say whether space is "bright" or "dark," because those concepts usually just apply to _objects_ that emit or reflect light, and empty space is not an object.

However, it is true that the space between the sun and earth is full of photons (light energy). If an astronaut in that space were to hold a white piece of cardboard so that the photons struck it, the cardboard would definitely look bright.

The astronaut would NOT see space "glowing" with light. In order for you to see a glow, the photons would have to be traveling in all different directions so that, whichever direction you faced, some photons would hit your eye. But if you're floating in a spot between sun & earth, most of the photons around you are traveling in just one direction (namely, towards the earth). In order to see the glow, you would have to turn your face so that the photons are hitting it. (Essentially, you would have to look in the direction of the sun).

> is there any particle in the outer space? or is it a vacuum-like condition?

There are very few particles. It is essentially a vacuum-like condition.

Answer 3

Space between the Sun and the Earth looks dark because there is nothing to reflect or scatter the Sun's light. You can only see light when it's reflecting off something, or when it goes straight into your eyes. Sunlight reaches the Earth as electromagnetic waves. They can travel through empty space.

Answer 4

The space between earth is neither bright or dark, it doesn't give off or absorb light. This space is a near-vacuum. There are particles in the space between the sun and earth, but compared to the atmosphere we breathe it is basically a vacuum.

The sun itself is bright, but the light or energy of the sun just moves through the open space.

Answer 5

Sunlight is the same thing as starlight, as the sun is a star. When you look at the stars, then what do you see? I'm answering this way so that you can use observation to come to your own conclusions.

As to space, it is full of debris. Sometimes a stray particle here and there amongst the otherwise empty vacuum where there aren't stars, planets, nebulae, asteroids, etc.

Sort of imagine taking a handful of dirt and flinging it through the air. Some of it will stay in large pieces, some will break off into smaller, and then some will be tiny specks .

Answer 6

Oohh...good question. Hmmmm....I'd have to say it's dark because we humans can't see the full spectrum of light. Our sight is very limited in this area. We can only see the end result of the light when it hits a solid, gaseous, liquid (even though in space most liquids freeze).

I would imagine though that since some animals can see a broader range of the spectrum, the light would look very much as if the space were illuminated.

Particles? Space dust from the formation of the universe. As for the "vacuum like" condition, that's a gimme. There is no air in space.

Answer 7

To see light, the light either has to enter your eye directly, or it has to bounce off of something. Get a flashlight, go into a dark room, and turn it on. You will see the light if you shine the flashlight straight into your eyes (it'll be "blinding"). If you point the flashlight at a wall you will see the bright spot. Light hits the wall and bounces into your eyes. But in the space between the flashlight and the wall, you see nothing (unless there's dust in the air, then you will see light bounce off of dust particles).

In space, there are very few particles for light to bounce off of, so you see nothing. You can see the moon and some planets because the sun's light bounces of of them. When light enters the earth's atmosphere, it bounces off of billions of molecules that make up the gases of the earth's atmosphere. The sunlight starts out pure (white) but is broken up into different wavelengths and scattered all over. Blue is the main color that gets deflected, so that's why our sky is bright blue instead of black or any other color (usually).

Answer 8

Dark.

The Sun emits light (radiates) because ot its high temperature. It is this high temperature which heats the air surrounding the Sun causing it to emit light.
All hot substances radiate light, either the visible kind or in the infra red and ultra violet ranges.

We can see the (visible) light in two ways. 1. Surrounding the source. 2. Light reflected off other objects.

Outerspace is never completely devoid of matter. Space between stars is composed of sparse matter such as thinly spread gas, dust, hydrogen plasma, ionized atomic nuclei, subatomic particles, and dark matter. Even the emptiest parts of space contain at least a few hundred atoms or molecules per cubic meter. This matter is not enough to reflect light. Only when larger objects exist such as planets or asteroids or large meteoroids or even a large grouping of dust cloud or nebula would there be enough matter to reflect light to our eyes.

When we look out during the day, we can see the light around the Sun directly. We also see this radiation being reflected off of other matter in our atmosphere. The sky seems to glow with light but this is only due to radiation being diffused and scattered and reflected off of particles in Earth's atmosphere. Particles such as dust and gas molecules such as Carbon Dioxide. This reflected light combines with direct light to allow us to see so many things.

In space, the absence of an atmosphere makes the Sun appear the same as a star, only brighter because we are closer to it than we are to other stars. We see objects that reflect light back to our eyes but space itself does not appear bright since it lacks the dust and molecules that are present in an atmosphere.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_900.html

Answer 9

It is dark 'couse there are no particles in space that radiate light.
Physicist say that it could be dark matter and the interstellar space is not entirely void. This dark matter has the propriety of repelling matter (antigravity). This is the way they explain the expansion of the Universe.

Answer 10

Cool question, I'm jsut writing some gibberish so that I can see other's answers.