Oh Olbers
So apparently I was intelligent enough at the age of about 14 to discover what was discovered in the 1600s. That is: why isn’t the night sky white? If we are to believe that there is a near-infinite number of stars at any one point in the sky and light travels forever than why are we not seeing white (light) at every point in the nighttime sky (and the daytime sky)?
It’s known as Olbers’ Paradox. Look it up.
Unfortunately, I’m not intelligent enough to be able to answer it yet. Its an interesting puzzle though.
I bring this up because I’ve recently heard a radio program about this problem.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I had always thought absorption + ambient light was the reason the sky was so dark, and we couldn’t see so many stars. Apparently according to wikipedia this is one of the alternate explanations. A neat paradox; I’m glad I read it.