The dark night sky paradox

Abstract

The infinite universe, uniformly populated with stars, was popularized in the 16th century. Early in the 17th century Kepler argued that within such a universe the sky everywhere would be as bright as the Sun. Since that time astronomers have sought in various ways to resolve the ’’dark night sky paradox’’ that is nowadays widely known as ’’Olbers’ paradox.’’ It is shown that the paradox has a simple resolution which has nothing to do with absorption of starlight, clustering of stars into galaxies, or expansion of the universe. The resolution is that stars do not shine long enough to fill space with sufficient radiation to create the bright sky visualized by Kepler.