Albers Paradox: What is the reason behind the black night sky?
October 4, 20243 Mins Read
We take it for granted that the night sky will be black or dark. How can a man disbelieve such an aquatic evidence that he has seen in front of his eyes since his birth. But in the seventeenth century several scientists wondered about it. One of them is the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Famous scientist of that era. He made a name for himself by discovering the laws of planetary motion.
night sky
Around 1610, Johannes Kepler argued that if the universe stretched to infinity with countless stars, then no matter where we looked in space from Earth, our line of sight would stop at some star. Between the bright stars there will be some faint stars. Again, there will be some fainter stars in between the faint stars.
So there will be no space between the stars in space. Much like seeing trees around in a forest. No matter where we look in the forest, our line of sight is blocked by some tree. So we can't see anything outside through the dense forest. Similarly, if our line of sight from the earth is limited to some star, then the whole night sky should be as bright as any normal star. The point is, the night sky should be bright, not pitch black. But observation shows the opposite, i.e. the night sky appears dark. Very mysterious thing! But what is the reason for this?
Kepler's question gave birth to a paradox. A few days later, Newton's friend Edmund Halley raised the same question. Who is famous for Halley's comet. However, this paradox became popular among scientists because of the German scientist Heinrich Albers. At the beginning of the 19th century, i.e. around 1823, he preached it extensively. Hence it became known to all as Albers' Paradox.
After that, the paradox has been puzzled for a long time, astronomers have repeatedly looked at the night sky with furrowed brows, but no one has been able to provide a solution. As an unsolved mystery took place in the books of science for several decades.
Interestingly, the first person to solve the paradox was not a scientist. Poet and fiction writer. Some call him the father of American mystery. He is Edgar Allan Poe. A character as mysterious as the mystery written by himself.
Poe wrote some prose called 'Eureka' in 1848. Therein lies the solution to Albers' paradox. Poe suggested that the universe was born in time and is expanding. But despite Poe's reputation in fiction, he was not valued as a scientist. Again, he had no evidence behind it. In the world of science, no one paid attention to his words. Regardless – or how, for ages people have believed that the universe is fixed, eternal; Poe says the exact opposite.
After almost 80 years, American astronomer Edwin Hubble proved Alan Poe's words to be true. Hubble observed the sky with the most powerful telescope of the time at Mount Wilson in California, USA. It was a 100 inch reflecting telescope. Night after night, Hubble took numerous pictures of distant galaxies. By analyzing them, he made new, groundbreaking discoveries about the universe.
Hubble's observations found a redshift in the light of most galaxies. It simply means, galaxies are moving away from us. Thus, with a set of data, Hubble proved that the universe is not static or eternal, but that it is gradually expanding.
After presenting such evidence, there was no way for anyone to deny or disbelieve the matter. Even Einstein himself had to regret it almost a decade later. Because, one day he disbelieved about the dynamic universe obtained from his equation.
