OK. I know this sounds juvenile. A four year old asked me that question the other day and I was simply sitting there scratching my head.

I began to think about it. Thinking, well I'm smart enough to figure this out.
But I couldn't.
I even searched the web and found people having the debate that went on in my head when I tried to answer it.

What I found went like this.

First guy....
Its due to lack of atmosphere, as they is nothing for the light rays to reflect off etc it is dark, unlike earth where sky appears blue due to light reflection from particles in the air, reflection of the sea etc...

Second guy....
Plus your answer is completely wrong!
There are so many stars in the universe that the light should light up the whole of space, however it does not! The reason for this is the small amount of particles that are in space, also maybe dark matter, if such a thing exists!
I changed the -4 to a +1 (would have been 0 but I cant give you that) :)

First guy again...
Actaully, Mr Know-It-All I was bang on the money, this is taken from an Astronomy experts website "The Sun is shining in space too, but there is no air for the light to bounce off of in space. That's why space is black"
Pick the bones out of that one Mr Picky... ;-)

Second guy one more time...
OK, firstly there is no need to be rude!
Secondly, the sun is shining in space too, but why does the light from our sun reach us if it requires particles for it to travel? It wouldent! What is between out sun and all the other stars and our planet is EXACTLY the same thing! NOTHING


Something very similar was bouncing around in my head but nothing sounded right.
I am in no way shape or form a scientist. So the answer is beyond me.

Unless this is it?

No atmosphere to disperse the light that would result in illuminating it.

But again...

Space is black because the light from all the stars, galaxies and other light emitting phenomena in the universe does not come unimpeded to earth. Between the vast number of stars out in the universe, either distance, other stars, or nebulae get in the way. But if you went out into the Hubble and looked at maximum magnification, you'd find that space has a wide variety of coloration from all the stuff that's out there. It actually looks more like black with white polka dots and blue and red tints and threads all over the place.

Space is black because the light from all the stars, galaxies and other light emitting phenomena in the universe does not come unimpeded to earth. Between the vast number of stars out in the universe, either distance, other stars, or nebulae get in the way. But if you went out into the Hubble and looked at maximum magnification, you'd find that space has a wide variety of coloration from all the stuff that's out there. It actually looks more like black with white polka dots and blue and red tints and threads all over the place.
So its just black to the naked eye?

Were the answers provided to you when you were researching unsatisfactory? I'm no scientist either but it makes a lot of sense to me that darkness is just the lack of reflection. It's same reason why we have darkness in various places on earth.

I have to go with the nothing to refract/reflect the light theory.

So its just black to the naked eye?
Pretty much, Inviolable. Every single direction in the sky you point will be taken by some stellar feature. You just can't see them because they're too faint to see with the naked eye.

Were the answers provided to you when you were researching unsatisfactory?

They werent exactly unsatisfactory. I just couldn't pick one.

I'm no scientist either but it makes a lot of sense to me that darkness is just the lack of reflection. It's same reason why we have darkness in various places on earth.
I do like this answer the best.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olber%27s_paradox

A bit technical, but highly relevant.

darkness is the abscense of light... and yea there is pretty much a star in every speck of the sky, it's just to small or faint and far away to have it's light reach earth.