Eli5: If there’s infinite stars, why isn’t our night sky completely lit up?

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As the title says, if there’s infinite stars, wouldn’t the light from all of them have reached us and made our night sky become completely white from the number of stars there are? Is there just not enough stars in proximity to earth for all the light to reach us in time to see?

I’m sure there’s a simple answer, but it’s 1am here and my brain can’t figure it out.

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18 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

ELI5: Although space is mostly empty, there is still a tiny bit of ‘dust’ floating in there. So the light from stars that are VERY far away has to get through a lot of spread out dust. But it’s enough dust to block the light from reaching us.

So we only see stars that are close enough or bright enough to shine through the dust.

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