Light from stars takes several light years to reach the earth, then why don't we see a trail of light of star?

Question

When we observe fast moving cars usually at night we can see a trail of light but that is not the same in case of stars. There are many stars and meteorites whizzing past the earth but we still see them as stationary objects.Why is that so?

Answer 1

You don't see a light wave until it hits some matter and illuminates it. You see headlight beams because there is always some dust in the air that intercepts some of the light and scatters it to your eye. Ain't no such dust in interstellar space.

Answer 2

stars arent "whizzing past earth". stars are suns, trillions of km away. they are millions of times larger than the earth. if they were close enough and moving fast enough for us to see them "whizzing by" we would be in some serious ****.

Answer 3

There's no such thing as a trail of light! It's only an optical illusion!

Answer 4

When you see the fast car travelling at night, you see the light trail cause light is bouncing off of the car.

We can only see light if the light is heading directly towards our eyes.  When we see light bouncing off of a wall for instance, that is because the light hits the wall and is reflected towards our eyes for us to see.

And since the light trail from stars isn't heading towards our eyes, we can't see them.  We can only see them if the light is redirected towards our eyes.

Answer 5

You have to think in change of angle, and not in speed. Although the stars are moving ridiculously fast with respect to us, the large distances means that the angle from us to them changes very slowly. If you stare out of the window of a car, it looks like the lines on the road are whizzing past you, but things that are further away look like they're moving more slowly, even though you're moving at the same speed relative to them. This kind of thing happens but in a way, way larger scale with stars.

Answer 6

well stars are moving really fast... but from our prespective they dont' appear to be moving at all.... that's diffrent from you standing still and watching a car going 60mph (faster then you) going by.

Answer 7

  The light of a star comes directly at you,not from the side