Why is The Night Sky Dark?

A Blog Post

Why is the night sky dark? If I ask you this question, you may wonder whether it requires any answer at all because many people assume that the sky in the night is dark because the sun is on the other side of the earth.  I too thought so, but I now know that it is not the right answer. The light of the sun does not go beyond a little distance in our galaxy. The outer space is indeed cold, dark and deadly. The universe looks still dark when you watch it with a telescope beyond the sun or when you look far into space. The simple truth is there is not enough light in the universe around us to make it look brighter. If the universe is God or God’s body, then he must be a very dark being filled with dark matter and little specs of light here and there. Not a pretty sight for those who are accustomed to envision him in bright and radiant colors.

Logically, the night sky should have been much brighter. There are billions of stars in our galaxy and trillions in nearby ones. Then there are billions of galaxies themselves. With so many shining stars and galaxies emitting so much light, the night sky should have been flooded with a lot of light. However, it is not the case because the space has been continuously expanding for the last 13 billion years or so, thereby making it increasingly difficult for light to travel in it and lit up the space.

According to astrophysicists, a few billion years ago, the night sky should have been much brighter, as if there was a celestial celebration on a grander scale. The younger universe was not only brighter but also hotter and deadlier, with harmful radiation everywhere. Perhaps, if the space did not expand and the stars and galaxies remained static, there would have been no life upon earth. We do not know for how long the universe or the space may keep expanding. We also do not know if the space itself is expanding, into what (dimension) it is expanding. However, what we know for sure is that as time goes by the universe will become increasingly darker and darker rather than brighter. Ironically, it will be like the Age of Kali, darker and gloomier.