Olbers' paradox

[ ohl-berz ]

noun

, Astronomy.

1. the paradox that if the universe consisted of an infinite number of stars equally distributed through space, then every line of sight would come from a star and the night sky would glow uniformly, which is observationally not true.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Olbers' paradox¹

First recorded in 1950–55; after H.W.M. Olbers