Why can't my headlights shine more than 160 feet in front of me, but stars can emit light that travels allllll the way the fuck to us here on the earth... I understand that on earth, there is atmosphere and whatnot that scatters and stops the light from shining further, but isnt starlight travelling through arguably much more atmosphere to shine all the way the fuck to my eyes? I mean- what the fuck- Why do people believe this shit? Can someone explain to me why I can see starlight from billions of miles away?
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (40)
sorted by:
they don't point in a specific direction, they radiate light in all directions. using the headlight metaphor, imagine all headlights were instead bright-ass balls emitting light in all directions, with the brightness being equivalent to the concentrated brightness real headlights emit.
edit: actually I think the headlights metaphor is not quite apt. think more of those marker lights that tall buildings use for helicopters and such. You can see those red lights from any direction from miles away, farther than the curvature of the Earth. now imagine those lights being orders of magnitude brighter than they currently are, and you roughly get a star.