Olbers' paradox

[ ohl-berz ]

/ ˈoʊl bərz /

noun Astronomy.

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.

Origin of Olbers' paradox

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