because the exposure isn't long enough to capture them with the bright earth taking up most of the field of view.

But if you were just the astronaut in that photo you would see stars?

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Yes, the sun reflecting off of the Earth or spacecraft is so much brighter than stars that the stars don't get picked up in the photo when the camera is calibrated for the brightness of the sunlit objects.

> Just trying to get an accurate idea of what space looks like?

you cannot hold your eyes open for seconds/minutes/hours at a time.

space will never look to your eyes like it does in pictures.

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>but why can’t you see the stars in a lot of published space photos?

because the image is too bright to see dim stars in the background.

​

imagine trying to see a birthday candle on the hood of a car with the headlights on.. the entire picture would be washed out if you left the shutter open long enough to capture the stars.

If your the astronaut, you could be seeing the stars. Our eyes are better than cameras.

In pictures, stars don't show up because of the distant lights of the stars isn't brighter than the closest object. Same way when you take a picture on a clear night, you can physically see stars in the backdrop but your camera will struggle to capture them unless shutter time is adjusted to let in more light to be able to capture them.

Hope this helps.