Sky seen from a planet orbiting a star in intergalactic void

FtlIsAwesome

A star that has been ejected from a galaxy probably wouldn't be any different from stars within galaxies. It could be possible for a planet to orbit this star. What would the night sky appear like? Would the galaxies be too dim to see, and the night sky fully black?

Lets say that the star is halfway between the Milky Way and the Canis Major Dwarf galaxy, the nearest galaxy at 25,000 ly away. How would the Milky Way look like from the star's planet?

Radrook

An intergalactic region doesn't place us out of range of the home galaxy or any other galaxy so galaxies could still be detected via optical or radio telescopes.. In fact, our own galaxy is right now in what can technically be called intergalactic space since it is between millions of other galaxies. The region between Canis Majoris Galaxy and ours would leave the sky pretty much as it is from a purely numerical star and galaxy observation standpoint.

Nabeshin

It would be rather boring to the naked eye. Chances are, individual stars would be difficult to resolve because of their distance, and you would just end up with a "milky way" type feature extending across a good portion of the sky. Other galaxies, such as Andromeda and the Magellanic clouds, would look much the same as we see them here on Earth.

FtlIsAwesome

Ok, I admit I phrased my question bady.
So I'll ask a slight different but related question.

If someone was halfway between Milky Way and Andromeda, distant galaxies would not be visible like stars, correct?
I used to think that someone would see a sky filled with points of light from the distant galaxies like stars do here, but galaxies are too dim.

Jonathan Scott

You've seen the Andromeda Galaxy, have you? A small faint smudge visible to the naked eye on a clear night.

If you were half way between Milky Way and Andromeda, I think that at night (assuming only human vision capabilities) you'd probably be able to see one or the other as a not-quite-so-faint smudge in the sky. Nothing else would be visible to the naked eye.

Chronos

Ejection of a star from a galaxy would probably not have much effect on its orbiting companions. Gravity is like politics - it's mostly local.

FtlIsAwesome

Hehe...


You've gone on a historical expidition in the archives haven't you?

russ_watters

Caveat: with pollution and light polution, I wouldn't bet that all that many people have seen the Andromeda galaxy, so while the rest of your explanation is correct given that assumption, for a city/suburb dweller on such planet, the sky may appear completely empty.