Why should sunlight be invisible in outer space?

Question

You always see depictions of outer space as if it's nighttime. The sun is depicted as this fiery light bulb that doesn't seem to be lighting anything up, it's just there lighting up by itself.. If you were on earth, and you took off in a rocket during the daytime, then why should everything suddenly become dark once you leave the earth's atmosphere? If you are still in the path of the sun's rays, then why should light appear to be invisible? If you are in space looking at the lighted up side of earth, then shouldn't the area around you be lighted up as well, since your back is to the sun? And if you are looking at earth seeing both the lit and unlit sides, then shouldn't you a large beam of light from the sun engulfing the earth? I understand that such depictions might look weird or even scary, but isn't this how it really is?

Answer 1

NO !!! In space the light can not be Sean as there is nothing to reflect the light.It is there as the lit side of his suit can be 300 deg.F. That is why we can see stars that are 100 light years away. There is no loss in space...

Answer 2

Photons are invisible to the human eye, as all electromagnetic radiation is.   The Earth's atmosphere scatters light photons and the water in our atmosphere acts as a prism, hence our sky is "light".

Answer 3

If your talking about the rays of the sun is invisible in space than I think it's because there is no particles for the light to be absorbed. But in Earth there are particles floating in air. That's what I think. :D

Answer 4

The only way you could see a beam of light (engulfing the Earth or otherwise) is if there were some semi-transparent medium (like air) that would partially reflect the light of the beam and send some of it towards your eyes instead of towards the whatever the beam is illuminating. In space, there's no atmosphere - thus, no "visible" beams of light.

I blame decades of bad science fiction on TV and in the movies. For example, lasers and phasers and blasters in space would have invisible beams, regardless of the "color" of the source - all of the photons (or whatever) would be traveling towards the target and, in a vacuum, none could leave the beam to enter your eyes.

Test: go to a dark room with a spotlight. Use the spotlight to illuminate the wall. Is there a visible beam of light? Then clap some erasers (or whatever) together to stir up some dust. See the beam now?

Answer 5

In order for there to be lighted areas, there has to be something for the light to reflect.  If it so happens that in one direction the next nearest object is tens of millions of miles away (aside from dust), then it will be dark.  

If you're interested, look at the hypothetical scenario for if the universe began to collapse.  Towards the end, the night sky would glow, because matter in the universe is near enough that we can discern its reflection.

Answer 6

You basically answered this yourself



"If you are still in the path of the sun's rays, then why should light appear to be invisible?"

If your eyes are in the path, they will see the light.

However in space, there is very little that will reflect light into your eyes.

Answer 7

it's called light diffusion. Basically the atmosphere in our planet spreads the light while in outer space, without atmosphere, it doesn't. Basically the same cause of why in space pictures (like the ones from the man on the moon) you don't see stars even though you'd think you could see them much better.

Answer 8

hold a light bulb 2 feet away from your head

do you see a beam of light flying towards you?

Answer 9

Are you telling me that you can see the light between a light bulb and when it lights up your hand?

You are quite mistaken that it is "dark" in space.  Do you not notice that the space shuttle or the space station are, indeed, very brightly lit when they are in sunshine?

The only time you can see a beam of light is when it passing through dust (or other media) which makes it visible.  Seriously, this question displays a profound lack of critical thought.

Answer 10

Light is invisable as it travels, but can be seen only if you either look directly at it's source, or look at surfaces off of which it is reflected.

Answer 11

Basically you're asking why the sky's blue on Earth but not in space.

The atmosphere diffracts the sunlight, with different colours diffracting differently. As it happens, the blue seems to come at us from all over the sky.

In space there's no atmosphere, so no diffraction. Notice that actual objects are well lit, it's just space it self which isn't apparently 'lit'.

Answer 12

Why would one see a "beam" of light? Light is visible only when it lights up an object, making the object reflect light.

When in the atmosphere, light is lighting the air and the small dust that is in suspension. In a vacuum, there is nothing to be lighted, so whan one sees is the source of the light (the sun), and the objects lighted (like the Earth, for instance), and that is all.

And if you are in orbit, and the sun is in sight, then you are lighted as well. Brightly. That is why most spaceships are painted white, so as to not get too hot.

Answer 13

In a phrase, it's because sunlight exists only in a transparent or translucent medium, like the atmosphere. Sunlight is also visible underwater.

Answer 14

Hopefully I can answer with a simple try - we "see" because of light reflected from an object. We will not get into absorbtion and what color we see, leave it as we see reflected light. So since we only see reflected light, we see nothing if there is nothing to reflect. So in space we see black, except when an object in space is lit by sunlight. In the country on a clear night, sky full of stars, you can almost, if not see your shadow. That is from light from space.