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How Dark is it in deep space?

Whenever you see the Starship Enterprise off on a mission, an 'outside' shot always shows the vessel in full visiblity - but how visible would it be? must you always be illuminated by lights on the top, or a planet nearby? If we were away from any planets and suns, and I were to space walk a few hundred yards away from the ship, and it had no lights on the outside, would I only see stars and a black 'shadow' where the ship was? Or is there always residual light? could I for example see my own hand in front of my face? or is there a point where you can see nothing nearby, but only stars and galaxies in the distance?

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Categories: Our universe.

Tags: Galaxy, light, Space, sun, sunlight, Planets, Spaceenviroment, spaceship.

 

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petethebloke says:

You can find the answer to your question by going outside on a moonless night. To keep everything fair and right, choose a night when there are no clouds. Make sure you are near no sources of artificial light. If you choose a summer night then you need to be sure you are getting full darkness (e.g. I live at 55 deg north and June nights don't get fully dark for a week or so around midsummer).

You'll find, all being well, that starlight is just about sufficient to make out shapes. If you hold your hand against the sky, you'll see a silhouette.

This gives a slightly false impression of what deep space might be like though, because we are in the thick of a bright galaxy. It's a good bit less bright in the huge spaces between galaxies.

sssss
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Tags: Galaxy, light, Space, sun, sunlight, Planets, Spaceenviroment, spaceship.

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posted on 2010-09-10 09:10:01 | Report abuse


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