What fraction of starlight, seen from Earth, is actually reflected light?











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Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.



Some of the starlight from outside the Solar System should be reflected light as well. That is, light emitted by one star in the Milky Way may encounter another star, and be reflected toward Earth. Normally, stars are assumed to be perfect blackbodies, but in reality they must bounce off some radiation.



Also, starlight should be reflected off exoplanets, moons, asteroids, meteors, comets, brown dwarfs, etc. What fraction of starlight, seen by the naked eye from Earth, is actually reflected light?










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  • Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
    – AtmosphericPrisonEscape
    4 hours ago















up vote
2
down vote

favorite












Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.



Some of the starlight from outside the Solar System should be reflected light as well. That is, light emitted by one star in the Milky Way may encounter another star, and be reflected toward Earth. Normally, stars are assumed to be perfect blackbodies, but in reality they must bounce off some radiation.



Also, starlight should be reflected off exoplanets, moons, asteroids, meteors, comets, brown dwarfs, etc. What fraction of starlight, seen by the naked eye from Earth, is actually reflected light?










share|improve this question







New contributor




StarlightDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
    – AtmosphericPrisonEscape
    4 hours ago













up vote
2
down vote

favorite









up vote
2
down vote

favorite











Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.



Some of the starlight from outside the Solar System should be reflected light as well. That is, light emitted by one star in the Milky Way may encounter another star, and be reflected toward Earth. Normally, stars are assumed to be perfect blackbodies, but in reality they must bounce off some radiation.



Also, starlight should be reflected off exoplanets, moons, asteroids, meteors, comets, brown dwarfs, etc. What fraction of starlight, seen by the naked eye from Earth, is actually reflected light?










share|improve this question







New contributor




StarlightDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.



Some of the starlight from outside the Solar System should be reflected light as well. That is, light emitted by one star in the Milky Way may encounter another star, and be reflected toward Earth. Normally, stars are assumed to be perfect blackbodies, but in reality they must bounce off some radiation.



Also, starlight should be reflected off exoplanets, moons, asteroids, meteors, comets, brown dwarfs, etc. What fraction of starlight, seen by the naked eye from Earth, is actually reflected light?







star light naked-eye interstellar






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asked 5 hours ago









StarlightDown

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  • Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
    – AtmosphericPrisonEscape
    4 hours ago


















  • Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
    – AtmosphericPrisonEscape
    4 hours ago
















Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
– AtmosphericPrisonEscape
4 hours ago




Do you really want a quantitative number? For exoplanets that's relatively easy to calculate or even measure (keyword: directly imaged systems), while for star-star scattering that's going to be very small and tough to estimate (remember a physical black-body is a near perfect absorber). Only the few photons that are scattered in the stellar atmosphere into our direction would count to your number. I don't know if anybody ever bothered to estimate that.
– AtmosphericPrisonEscape
4 hours ago










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A truly negligible amount. You only need compare the brightness of the planets as viewed from the Earth with the brightness of the sun. A very rough calculation (considering the relative magnitudes of the planets and the Sun) suggests that light emitted directly by the sun is 100 million times brighter than light reflected off planets.



You note that the sun is not a perfect black body, and so does reflect some light. However it only reflects light reflected on to it from the stars, which are a very weak light source. And most starlight that does fall on the sun is absorbed. I haven't tried to estimate how much of the sun's light is reflections of starlight, but it is a very very small proportion. I'd guess much less than a billionth.



There is one situation where reflected light is significant, and that is when very bright stars illuminate dust and gas, to form a reflection nebula. These are common and at least part of the orion nebula is reflected starlight. Other reflection nebulae are too dim to see.



While a I don't have an exact figure, it is clear that nearly all starlight is directly emitted from the star, and it takes special equipment to see any reflected light at all.






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  • Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
    – pela
    2 hours ago











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A truly negligible amount. You only need compare the brightness of the planets as viewed from the Earth with the brightness of the sun. A very rough calculation (considering the relative magnitudes of the planets and the Sun) suggests that light emitted directly by the sun is 100 million times brighter than light reflected off planets.



You note that the sun is not a perfect black body, and so does reflect some light. However it only reflects light reflected on to it from the stars, which are a very weak light source. And most starlight that does fall on the sun is absorbed. I haven't tried to estimate how much of the sun's light is reflections of starlight, but it is a very very small proportion. I'd guess much less than a billionth.



There is one situation where reflected light is significant, and that is when very bright stars illuminate dust and gas, to form a reflection nebula. These are common and at least part of the orion nebula is reflected starlight. Other reflection nebulae are too dim to see.



While a I don't have an exact figure, it is clear that nearly all starlight is directly emitted from the star, and it takes special equipment to see any reflected light at all.






share|improve this answer





















  • Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
    – pela
    2 hours ago















up vote
3
down vote













A truly negligible amount. You only need compare the brightness of the planets as viewed from the Earth with the brightness of the sun. A very rough calculation (considering the relative magnitudes of the planets and the Sun) suggests that light emitted directly by the sun is 100 million times brighter than light reflected off planets.



You note that the sun is not a perfect black body, and so does reflect some light. However it only reflects light reflected on to it from the stars, which are a very weak light source. And most starlight that does fall on the sun is absorbed. I haven't tried to estimate how much of the sun's light is reflections of starlight, but it is a very very small proportion. I'd guess much less than a billionth.



There is one situation where reflected light is significant, and that is when very bright stars illuminate dust and gas, to form a reflection nebula. These are common and at least part of the orion nebula is reflected starlight. Other reflection nebulae are too dim to see.



While a I don't have an exact figure, it is clear that nearly all starlight is directly emitted from the star, and it takes special equipment to see any reflected light at all.






share|improve this answer





















  • Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
    – pela
    2 hours ago













up vote
3
down vote










up vote
3
down vote









A truly negligible amount. You only need compare the brightness of the planets as viewed from the Earth with the brightness of the sun. A very rough calculation (considering the relative magnitudes of the planets and the Sun) suggests that light emitted directly by the sun is 100 million times brighter than light reflected off planets.



You note that the sun is not a perfect black body, and so does reflect some light. However it only reflects light reflected on to it from the stars, which are a very weak light source. And most starlight that does fall on the sun is absorbed. I haven't tried to estimate how much of the sun's light is reflections of starlight, but it is a very very small proportion. I'd guess much less than a billionth.



There is one situation where reflected light is significant, and that is when very bright stars illuminate dust and gas, to form a reflection nebula. These are common and at least part of the orion nebula is reflected starlight. Other reflection nebulae are too dim to see.



While a I don't have an exact figure, it is clear that nearly all starlight is directly emitted from the star, and it takes special equipment to see any reflected light at all.






share|improve this answer












A truly negligible amount. You only need compare the brightness of the planets as viewed from the Earth with the brightness of the sun. A very rough calculation (considering the relative magnitudes of the planets and the Sun) suggests that light emitted directly by the sun is 100 million times brighter than light reflected off planets.



You note that the sun is not a perfect black body, and so does reflect some light. However it only reflects light reflected on to it from the stars, which are a very weak light source. And most starlight that does fall on the sun is absorbed. I haven't tried to estimate how much of the sun's light is reflections of starlight, but it is a very very small proportion. I'd guess much less than a billionth.



There is one situation where reflected light is significant, and that is when very bright stars illuminate dust and gas, to form a reflection nebula. These are common and at least part of the orion nebula is reflected starlight. Other reflection nebulae are too dim to see.



While a I don't have an exact figure, it is clear that nearly all starlight is directly emitted from the star, and it takes special equipment to see any reflected light at all.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



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answered 5 hours ago









James K

32.2k248106




32.2k248106












  • Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
    – pela
    2 hours ago


















  • Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
    – pela
    2 hours ago
















Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
– pela
2 hours ago




Are you sure? Most stars are in binaries, i.e. quite close to a companion star. And I'm not sure the albedo of a star is so small after all. I'm sure you're right that it's a small fraction, but I'm uncertain if it's really negligible. Would be a fun exercise…
– pela
2 hours ago










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