How come space is dark yet, earth is light and only dark in the night?

Question: How come space is dark yet, earth is light and only dark in the night?
- Keywords:
  earth,
  light
Asked by AshtonH to Jane, Helen, Heather, Hugh, Julian on 14 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by FelicityP.
- Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:
  
  We see things if they give off light. So there are two ways this can happen.
  If the object emits light itself, such as the Sun. So we can obviously see the Sun.
  The other way is if it reflects light, in which case we see if reflect the light of the Sun when it is facing it.
  In space there is nothing for the light to reflect off, so it just looks black.
- Helen Johnson answered on 17 Nov 2014:
  
  Yep, there’s nothing there in the gaps between stars and planets for the light to reflect off, so we just see total darkness. The only reason we can see the other planets in our solar system, and any asteroids etc. is because they reflect light from the Sun. Different materials reflect light better than others, we call this the planet’s ‘albedo’. This is an interesting article about how bits of comet 67P on Earth would look really black, yet in space we see it as this object glowing white against the darkness of space – http://www.universetoday.com/114034/what-comets-parking-lots-and-charcoal-have-in-common/

Question: How come space is dark yet, earth is light and only dark in the night?