When you are in space, besides our sun, can we see other stars?

When you are in space, besides our Sun, can we see other stars?

But in space, there is no air! Astronauts have reported being surprised at how steady and clear the stars look. Although I have heard different stories from different people, I think that astronauts can see a few more stars on average than we can here on Earth, but not a huge amount more. Remember, they still have to look through a window (whether they are on a rocket or in a space suit)! Try this: on a clear night, try to count how many stars you can see through your bedroom window. Then go outside and look at the same spot, and see if you can count more stars. You probably will!

One more thing: you have probably heard of the Hubble Space Telescope. It surprises many people to learn that Hubble is not the biggest telescope in the world. As a matter of fact, it's actually kind of small as telescopes go! Hubble's biggest advantage is that it is in orbit high above the atmosphere, so the distorting effects of the Earth's air aren't a problem. This gives it a huge advantage over ground-based telescopes.

If you want to learn more about stars and Hubble, I have a few web pages you can look at: my Bitesized Astronomy pages have some fun ideas about Hubble, and I have lots of links to other astronomical web pages on my Good Science links page.