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How can we see stars millions of light years away from Earth?

Are there not other stars in the way? I mean we are so far away how can see light that far away how can it directly reach Earth without bouncing off of other things? All answers appreciated.
Original post by thatoneguy123
Are there not other stars in the way? I mean we are so far away how can see light that far away how can it directly reach Earth without bouncing off of other things? All answers appreciated.

Heya, I'm going to put this in the sciences forum for you as you should get more responses there. :smile:

You should also check out the forum to see if there's any other threads there which might be helpful to you! http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=51
decent question - at a range of millions of light years you're usually talking about looking at galaxies rather than individual stars tho'

a lot of the universe is transparent which is why radiation from very distant objects can reach us - why you don't see overlapping stars in a continuous sphere is a famous question known as Olber's paradox
someone's written a book about it... http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674192713 it's pop-sci in that it's not written like a text book with exercises and doesn't require much math maths, but still stretches the mind.
Original post by Joinedup
decent question - at a range of millions of light years you're usually talking about looking at galaxies rather than individual stars tho'

a lot of the universe is transparent which is why radiation from very distant objects can reach us - why you don't see overlapping stars in a continuous sphere is a famous question known as Olber's paradox
someone's written a book about it... http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674192713 it's pop-sci in that it's not written like a text book with exercises and doesn't require much math maths, but still stretches the mind.

Thank you for taking the time to reply :smile: much appreciated
Check out "gravitational lensing". The mass from stars causes the space-time fabric to bend, meaning light from stars that are beyond other stars, bend around the nearer stars.

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