Olbers' Paradox
If the universe is infinite and full of stars, every line of sight should end on one. So why is the night sky dark?
1610 (Kepler), 1744 (de Chéseaux), 1823 (Olbers)17 min read
English astronomy
Edmond Halley
1656 – 1742
Astronomer Royal, financier of Newton's Principia, and predictor of the return of the comet that bears his name. In two papers read to the Royal Society in 1721 he took up the question of why an infinite sphere of fixed stars does not set the night sky ablaze, and offered an argument from the diminishing apparent size of remote stars that does not, in fact, work.