Olber's Dance in the Dark

<p dir="ltr">At night step outside and, weather permitting, take a look at the brightly lit</p><p dir="ltr">backbone in the sky. On a clear night your observations made of the night</p><p dir="ltr">sky can be every bit as profound as Einstein’s or Kepler’s. The fact that</p><p dir="ltr">the night sky is dark, and not as bright as the burning star at the center of</p><p dir="ltr">our solar system tells us the most fundamental thing about our</p><p dir="ltr">universe. The catch in Olber’s paradox is that it is impossible for the</p><p dir="ltr">universe to be infinitely large because if it were there would not be a dark</p><p dir="ltr">sky at night, due to every point in our line of sight being taken up by the</p><p dir="ltr">forever existing light of a star, whether near or far, similar to the way you</p><p dir="ltr">would not be able catch sight of the landscape which sits just beyond a</p><p dir="ltr">dense forest of trees stretching out for miles and miles.</p>