Why We Can’t See Stars in Space

Though people living on the earth often get a feeling that stars should be easily visible when seen from outer-space or during space-walks, astronauts find it very hard to see stars, clearly even from the International Space Station. This is so because while star gazing, the overwhelming brightness of the sun and other reflective surfaces mess up the night sky and thus outdo the faint twinkling of a star.

Just like on our planet, if a powerful light source is shone in that direction, the pupils of our eyes narrow, permitting less light to pass through and making even slightly dim stars almost undetectable.

This effect is rather like trying to glimpse stars from the brightly lit city street—the night view is obscured by the artificial light. Secondly, the cameras that are involved in the space missions are usually adjusted to short exposure times when taking brightly lit objects like superior planets, space craft or the lunar surface hence no visibility of stars in space shots.

But as soon as the astronauts are in the planet’s shadow or look in the opposite to the Sun, they are able to adapt their eyes to the night conditions and to see stars with the same clarity as it can be on the Earth during the night. This is the reason why stars cannot be seen in the space imagery and why there is no starlight in the skies; it is a matter of how we see them and the technical aspect of cameras.