<p>There is absolutely no way to know right now what will happen. It's my personal belief that we aren't just expanding into nothingness forever, but will have endless interactions with other universes in the mesh of existence, or maybe we will stop expanding and collapse again. We may even know that answer in our lifetime. That said, the night sky could have just about anything in store, but earth probably won't survive long enough to see much of the changes.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-29T23:36:25.270Z
2021-03-29T23:36:25.270Z
Robert Rice
<p>Nope! The universe's expansion is accelerating, which means there's a &quot;horizon&quot; beyond which light can never reach us, no matter how long it travels. Although the light always travels at the speed of light, the &quot;amount of space&quot; between photon and us can increase faster than the speed of light. This isn't a real &quot;speed&quot; - it's not any one object moving faster than the speed of light, it's all of space between us and the photon locally expanding a little bit - but it means the photon will never reach us. The acceleration means that this horizon will eventually shrink, as the expansion speeds up.</p>
<p>This means there's a finite amount of stuff that we can ever reach, and that can ever reach us. So you won't build up more and more distant stars &amp; galaxies in the night sky forever.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-29T18:54:19.453Z
Currently, that assumption is not agreed upon. There is still doubt as to whether expansion is accelerating or decelerating.
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-29T21:59:10.787Z
Our night sky is mostly within 1500 light years or so of the Sol system.  Distances beyond that, i.e. dark-energy expansion, likely won't apply in the reasonable long-term. What might apply is the impending collision with Andromeda.  Might there not be a time when the added stars and new star growth from that collision make up more than 50% of the visible sky?
JohnHunt
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-29T18:25:05.360Z
2021-03-29T18:25:05.360Z
Abhigyan Kumar
<p>Given enough time, will enough light from distant stars reach Earth so that our night sky will be more than 50% stars?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-29T18:41:08.897Z
Maybe, if our orbit passes through a globular cluster.
Wayfaring Stranger
<star><earth><light><distances><night-sky>
Will the night sky ever be more stars than darkness?
Abhigyan Kumar
# Will the night sky ever be more stars than darkness?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-29)

Given enough time, will enough light from distant stars reach Earth so that our night sky will be more than 50% stars?

**Tags:** star, earth, light, distances, night-sky

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Maybe, if our orbit passes through a globular cluster.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-03-29. Score: 0

There is absolutely no way to know right now what will happen. It's my personal belief that we aren't just expanding into nothingness forever, but will have endless interactions with other universes in the mesh of existence, or maybe we will stop expanding and collapse again. We may even know that answer in our lifetime. That said, the night sky could have just about anything in store, but earth probably won't survive long enough to see much of the changes.


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### Answer by username_0 on 2021-03-29. Score: 0

Nope! The universe's expansion is accelerating, which means there's a "horizon" beyond which light can never reach us, no matter how long it travels. Although the light always travels at the speed of light, the "amount of space" between photon and us can increase faster than the speed of light. This isn't a real "speed" - it's not any one object moving faster than the speed of light, it's all of space between us and the photon locally expanding a little bit - but it means the photon will never reach us. The acceleration means that this horizon will eventually shrink, as the expansion speeds up.

This means there's a finite amount of stuff that we can ever reach, and that can ever reach us. So you won't build up more and more distant stars & galaxies in the night sky forever.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Currently, that assumption is not agreed upon. There is still doubt as to whether expansion is accelerating or decelerating.  
> **username_4**: Our night sky is mostly within 1500 light years or so of the Sol system.  Distances beyond that, i.e. dark-energy expansion, likely won't apply in the reasonable long-term. What might apply is the impending collision with Andromeda.  Might there not be a time when the added stars and new star growth from that collision make up more than 50% of the visible sky?  

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