I've never been in space, so I don't know...

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

Why isn't space really bright, and if it is, why don't I know about it?  After all, the only reason we see space as dark is because we're seeing what's in the earth's shadow.  Since most of space isn't IN earth's shadow, should most of our solar system be lit up as if it were daytime?

[Psycho]

Well, for it to be bright there has to be sources of light. Secondly there has to be something to light up. Space is mostly empty, meaning there is not much to reflect the light of.

Its like if you have an enourmous empty room, and there is a lightbulb in the middle. The light might be bright, but if it doesen't reach the walls or floor, there is nothing to light up.

I suck at explaining, but I hope you get the idea.

Also Im not sure about this, but its my theory anyway.

[a-4-year-old]

there is nothing for the light to hit, so it passes along until it hits a little man in a spacesuit, thats why you can see the man in the space suit, but around him is all black.

Edit: Damn psycho.

[bja888]

There is not enough substance floating around to bounce light off of. The stars are few and far apart to give enough light to see you hand in front of your face. (At least in this part of the milky way)

Edit: Damn a-4-year-old

[Mangled*]

They're right but I feel like reiterating in my own words.

Let's imagine that the universe is flat for a moment, a star is a circle that beams out light in 360 directions. The further away from a star you are, the larger the gap between the angled beams of light there is, and so there's a less likelihood of the light being so intense.

Apart from the sun, from most other stars we can see we can only see light at one particular degree out of all 360 of them because it's the only one that comes our way, all the others veer off millions of miles away from us.

The vast distance between the stars and us, and between them and theirselves and the fact that only one particular angle of all the light coming from each star is what we can see means that only a tiny amount of the light in the universe actually comes in our direction at all.

Now that's only partly why...

Stars further away appear dimmer and that's because  their light takes longer to reach us, and in that time potentially many other planets, black holes, clouds of debris and asteroids may move in the path of the light, blocking it or it may also be distorted by the gravitational pull of other stars and black holes. The further the light has to travel, the more obstacles it faces before reaching us. Not to mention things such as red-shifting if the light has come from a very massive star, the light will have less energy and appear dimmer anyway because it looses energy in escaping the gravitational pull of the star it's coming from.

Space has no solid boundaries off which light can reflect, we only see things that either emit light or reflect light.

[Demonic]

This is something I've always wondered but never bothered to ask. Rad!

[Slashnoob]

while we're on space related issues, and the original one answered, take a look at that -
http://www.techdo.com/images/largest-know-star.htm
it's something i came across a few days ago. i knew there are stars way bigger than our own sun but.. DAMN!

imagine how our lives looked like if we'd live in a planet larger than the entire milky-way.. (Canis Majoris for example)

[Espadon]

Canis Majoris is not a planet. A planet that big would be massive enough that the center would start nuclear fusion; besides, it would be a gas giant in the first place, which is something we can never live in [since as a gaseous planet, there really isn't an "on"].

Anyways most of the big stars are late stage red giants where the outer shell has already cooled and expanded and is pretty much a big bubble of hydrogen swaddling the star.

[Mangled*]

I've always thought such massive stars would have surpassed the Chandrasekhar limit and collapsed under their own gravitational force.

[The Philanthropist]

I've always thought such massive stars would have surpassed the Chandrasekhar limit and collapsed under their own gravitational force.

They did. Then they got freakin' huge.

EDIT: wait nevermind, I think I have it backwards.

[Blue-ninja]

You cannot wrap your mind around the massiveness of the stars.

[KorrupT MerC]

while we're on space related issues, and the original one answered, take a look at that -
http://www.techdo.com/images/largest-know-star.htm
it's something i came across a few days ago. i knew there are stars way bigger than our own sun but.. DAMN!

imagine how our lives looked like if we'd live in a planet larger than the entire milky-way.. (Canis Majoris for example)

I know this is a bit off topic but this reminded me of something i saw...

The Megapenny project
Just start at one penny... it'd be crazy to watch one of those things collapse...

[tehsnipah]

You cannot wrap your mind around the massiveness of the stars.

holy shit...

[M.rSnow]

What?! Betelgeuse Really exist?! I might visit Ford's homeplanet then Sometime (You who did read the book get it).
So those are the stars who make the "Red displacement". Was on a lecture the other day and i couldn't imagine how big those stars had to be. Thanks!

[ds dude]

Wow, so there are much larger stars then the sun? Wow I'm going to do some research on this, then come back to this topic.  Although I do have a couple of scientific questions to ask that some may an answer to.  Where does the biggest star exist? Like which galaxy or solar system? Is it unknown?  Also is it possible for one of the stars to replace our sun?

[a-4-year-old]

Wow, so there are much larger stars then the sun? Wow I'm going to do some research on this, then come back to this topic.  Although I do have a couple of scientific questions to ask that some may an answer to.  Where does the biggest star exist? Like which galaxy or solar system? Is it unknown?  Also is it possible for one of the stars to replace our sun?

biggest star is probably unknown, and it couldn't replace our sun, not without wiping out everything in the solar system.

[ds dude]

True, but in wiping our solar system do you mean that its to big, or copious? Or the heat is so powerful?

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

It's too big.  Look at the gif Blue-ninja posted.

[a-4-year-old]

True, but in wiping our solar system do you mean that its to big, or copious? Or the heat is so powerful?

all of the above.

[tehsnipah]

i really might gonna study about geology(is this right one?) this weekend