What's the current explanation of Olber's paradox?

On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, Bernard & Nancy wrote:

> in answer to a ? about the blue sky "you" don't name the particles that
> do the scattering. They are .......

The particles that scatter light in our atmosphere to make the sky blue
are ordinary dust particles, blown in to the atmosphere by winds or
volcanic eruptions, as well as dust swept up by the Earth from space.

> What's the current explanation of Olber's paradox?

Olber's paradox is thatif the universe is infinite in size and age,
everywhere we look we should see a star, and so the entire sky should be
as bright as the surface of the sun. This is obviously not the case, so
the problem must lie in our assumptions that the universe is infinite in
space and time. While astronomers still do not know if the universe is
infinite in size or not, we do know that it has a finite age (of around 10
or 15 billion years). Therefore, any light from stars further away than
15 billion light-years has not had time to reach us yet. This, in short,
is the currently preferred solution to Olber's paradox. There is a
(slightly) longer explanation at the following web site:
http://sciweb.onysd.wednet.edu/sciweb/astronomy/astrophysics/Olbersp.html

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams

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