Oblers Paradox

[RTFishall]

If Oblers Paradox is not true (ie why is the night sky not bright?). How is it that our most powerful telescopes can see almost to the edge of the Universe and the start of time and it's still dark?

[Whickerman]

This is only a guess, but I'd imagine it's that light travels at a constant speed, and the universe is expanding, and the universe is a finite age. At some stage it may well stop expanding at which time it will fill with light? Simplistic but...

[brachiopod]

Err..... because the universe is not infinite. You seem to have confused the implications of the null hypothesis.

The point being that in an infinite universe, a star will exist (however distant or faint) at every possible angle of view and thus the night sky would be bright. (Since between every bright star, there is a fainter star and an infinite number of fainter stars in between these and so on, so that the cumulative effect would be brightness.)

The argument goes, since this is not true, (ie. the night sky is black, punctuated by points of light), then the universe must be finite (or, "have an edge").

You could also argue that the simple answer to the sky not being bright is that the universe is "too young".

[brachiopod]

Hi Whickerman - your answer wasn't there when I started typing - so all points are directed at the question poster - sorry if it seems otherwise!!


pod x

[mibn2cweus]

Any relation to Olber?