Why does the sun not illuminate space? – Teach me about science

For years we’ve seen great images and thanks to the contribution of the James Webb Space Telescope, these images have better definition, allowing us to observe small details that yield a large amount of data for scientists.

But the thing that few people wonder about because of the connection they’ve had for years with the universe is, why is the background always black?

The first thing to keep in mind is that black is not considered a color, but rather a visual perception of extreme darkness; due to the lack of photoreception. “Black is simply the absence of detectable light,” in contrast to color, which consists of visible light, from an agreement As Evan Blader, Professor at the Astrophysical Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, puts it.

Why does the sun not illuminate space?

We know that in space there is not only the sun, but also any other star in the universe; Luminous objects emit energy, but why not light up that deep darkness?

to an agreement With Dr. Vladimir Avila Reis, a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in an exclusive interview with National Geographic in Spanish, he commented that the real question to be asked is why on Earth, the sun shines so much.

On Earth, you can see different shadows in the sky, depending on what time you look at it, unlike the universe which is always lit up in complete darkness.

Something similar happens with a light bulb in the dark, when it can light well in a room, but poorly in an open space at night. What is seen, in a greater dimension, is that the Sun shines well in the half of the Earth’s atmosphere that points to it, though not in the other half or in the interplanetary space, where darkness prevails, “captures Ávila-Reis.

The sun generates energy that comes out in the form of electromagnetic radiation or photons. Most of this radiation is visible, that is, it is light.

This light is projected everywhere (because of the sun’s spherical shape), but the flux decreases inversely proportional to the square of the distance, so this energy flux quickly weakens.

Light scattering and reflection

Let’s keep in mind that the universe is very dark and with the aforementioned it helps us understand, a little bit, the way sunlight is weakened.

The space must have a medium that reflects and / or scatters the light coming from the source in all directions so that it is not dark, in addition to taking into account factors such as distance, light scattering, and even the presence of other lights and fogs.

In this way, the answer to the question why the sun does not illuminate space is that space is relatively empty, and there are not enough particles that efficiently scatter sunlight, unlike what happens in the atmosphere of that point in cosmic space. It’s called Earth, ”concludes the National Geographic specialist.

For more information consult: National Geographic.