Humans are curious by nature, so we are always looking for new knowledge, answers to the thousands of questions that run through our minds, especially when we are children. It is at this stage that we want to know everything around us and find the answer to the questions we ask when we know practically nothing. As adults, this curiosity diminishes, but it never goes away, and at this point we can now look for answers and solutions.
A topic of endless interest to people of all ages is what's in space. All of us, without exception, at some point turn to look at the sky, mesmerized by the beauty of a night sky or a sunny day, and question what lies beyond what our eyes can see. Of course, what catches our attention is what must be in space, and we ask ourselves questions related to the celestial bodies found in it. Although there are thousands of stars and other bodies in space, we are plagued by doubts about the bright spots we see on clear nights.
Undoubtedly, one of the questions that many people have asked themselves at some point in their lives is, if there are so many stars that give off as much light as our Sun, why does the light from the Sun fail to shine? Location?? It is well known that outer space is dark in appearance, and even though it is close to our star, even a small part of it is illuminated by the light of the Sun. Precisely this interesting question was asked by a child and sent to the astronauts on the International Space Station. And we will mention the answer below.
Why can't the sun light up dark space?
Let's start by describing the sun. Our sun is a star, a source of light that emits its energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation that it emits in all directions. Most of this radiation is visible to the eye, i.e. emitted as a stream of light. The intensity of sunlight decreases with time square distanceThat means an object twice as far from the Sun as Earth will receive only a quarter of its light because the Sun directs a limited light flux over an increasingly large spherical surface.
In other words, the interplanetary space near Earth receives the radiation flux received by our planet. However, the Sun cannot illuminate space as it does on Earth because there is nothing to reflect sunlight. On Earth, particles in the atmosphere scatter light, which is why the Sun illuminates the Earth. Unlike space, where vacuum reigns there is not a single particle to scatter light. This explanation also applies to why Earth's sky is blue and Mars' sky is red because they have different atmospheres that scatter light differently and acquire different tones.
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