Astronomy, Why Is the Sky Dark

“Why is the night sky dark?”(Hienrich) For thousands of years this question, also known as Olber’s paradox, has been asked. Astronomers are constantly growing closer to the answer but still no one has yet found a finite answer. As scientists relentlessly collect data hoping to find some clue as to the answer to this riddle we seem to realize that the answer may be because of something that is too mind blowing for us to comprehend. Several explanations have been considered over the years. But as of right now only about two reasons seem to answer the question at hand. Here are several explanations, some of which have been scientifically accepted and others that just simply appear to be logical.

The first explanation is that there is too much dusk in the universe to see the light from distant stars. This is obviously wrong. The dust does act as a shield, making some of the light harder to see from earth. But the amount of dust that it would take to completely block out all starlight would also block out light from the sun and this is clearly not happening.

A second explanation is that the Universe has a finite number of stars. Well, regardless of how finite the number of stars is, the reality is that the number of stars we do have would be enough energy to light up the entire sky. There is too much luminous matter in the Universe to allow this explanation to be correct.

A third explanation is that the distribution of stars is such that some hind behind others and so the light from these stars can’t be seen. This could be partially correct. If the stars were placed fractally (A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry) then there could be patches where the sky seemed to look empty, and in large areas appear dark.

Finally, the last two explanations seem to be the most correct. The first is that the Universe is