Why the light of stars outside the solar system don’t/barely make us warmer.

Question

I’ve read a 3 month old thread that explains how the light of the sun transfer heat but i was wondering why do the light of other stars don’t seem to affect us.

In: Physics

Answer 1

Because of the inverse square law. A sphere’s surface area grows by the square of its radius. That means if you go twice as far out from a star, its radiation flux is only 1/4th of what it was before. This adds up fast. The radiation flux from even “nearby” stars is so tiny we can barely see them at all.