Want to try to explain a physics question?

[Docfeelgood]

If the stars we see at night are millions of years old, then why do we not see the light of stars streaked across the sky?

Say like a long exposed photo.

I know there are some very, very smart people here at Poly, I just thought I would ask.

[MichaeltheGreat]

The age/distance is irrelevant. It's the same as any other point source of light - your eyes see it more or less instantaneously, not as a sequence of images retained over time. If you saw starlight streaked, you'd also see streaks of car headlights, lamps in your room, etc.

[Aeson]

It's because you aren't using enough 'shrooms.

[MichaeltheGreat]

That too.

[Kidlicious]

If the stars we see at night are millions of years old, then why do we not see the light of stars streaked across the sky?

Say like a long exposed photo.

I know there are some very, very smart people here at Poly, I just thought I would ask.

[Jon Miller]

Your question is actually on the path to a good question.

Read up on Olber's paradox.

This paradox doesn't relate to seeing the light from a star at various times in it's life as a streak but rather that you should see light from every star that ever lived and it should brighten the night sky. Part of the solution is that the universe is expanding. Another part is the finite age of the universe.

JM

[snoopy369]

If the stars we see at night are millions of years old, then why do we not see the light of stars streaked across the sky?

Say like a long exposed photo.

I know there are some very, very smart people here at Poly, I just thought I would ask.

Because the relative motion of the stars as compared to their distance is very small. IE, they are moving very fast, but they're very very very far away, so mostly they stay in the same position relative to the earth except over long periods of time (similarly, an airplane 20k feet above you doesn't look like it's moving very fast, even when it's hitting 300mph). Also, the earth is rotating far faster relative to the apparent motion of the stars, so the streaking you do get if you set up a camera with a long shutter is almost all from that rotation (all, probably, since the motion of the star is so little that it is not noticeable on the resolution of your camera).

[Docfeelgood]

thank you very much guys

[N35t0r]

Your question is actually on the path to a good question.

Read up on Olber's paradox.

This paradox isn't that you see the light from a star at various times in it's life as a streak but rather that you should see light from every star that ever lived and it should brighten the night sky. Part of the solution is that the universe is expanding. Another part is the finite age of the universe.

JM

Isn't the atmosphere too dirty for that to happen, though?

[Kidlicious]

thank you very much guys

Welcome

[Sava]

at some point all that light is going to get cockblocked byu other big **** floating around

like my dick