How can you tell the difference between a star and planet?

Answer 1

A star produces it's own light, a planet does not, it merely reflects the light of the star. Because a star producing it's own light, it will glow brightly, dim, then glow again........this is the twinkling effect, much like the flame from a match, or any burning fire. :)

Answer 2

Many people say planets don't twinkle, but they do, just not as much as stars.

One person said the planets move unpredictably and the stars don't. That is close but not quite true. Planets move predictably and the stars move so slowly that they seem fixed during a human lifetime.

So the bottom line is, if you look up and see a bunch of stars and want to know if one of them is a planet, if there is an extra star in one of the constellations that is not plotted on a star chart of that constellation, then it is a planet. Then look at it a few nights later and if it has changed position then that confirms it is a planet. Look at it with a telescope to REALLY confirm it. If you know the night sky well, you don't need the chart, you can just recognize all the constellations from memory.

Answer 3

This is as simple as ever!First of all when we look up in the sky we see some tiny white or yellow coloured spots there.Secondly,when we think of which one is a star and which one a planet we first think of the special quality of these two things.What we get to know is that the stars seem to twinkle whereas planets do not.That's the way in which we can easily differentiate between a star and a planet.

Answer 4

Stars are enormous balls of fireplace that are a lot higher than planets. Planets are hunks of debris left over from the formation of the superstar that revolve round stars, captured with assistance from their gravity. the merely reason planets look brighter contained in the sky is that planets are a lot closer. in spite of the undeniable fact that, if the celebrities were further closer (for instance, the sunlight, that's farther away than maximum some planets like Mars, Venus, and Mercury), they could illuminate the sky. you are able to tell the variation between stars and planets because stars turn over us in a uniform trend, even as planets do not look to exhibit like the celebrities do over us. the clarification for that is that even as the Earth is popping and the celebrities are last nonetheless, the planets in our photo voltaic equipment are also transferring, inflicting them to look to flow out of sync with the different stars.

Answer 5

When looking at a stellar system, a star will contain a very large mass compared to that of its planets. If you see a system with more than one enormous mass, it's probably a system with more than one star (like the Centauri system, with three stars). Sol (our sun) contains 99% of the mass in the Solar System.

Planets tend to orbit stars. But then again, so do comets and asteroids.

Stars emit electomagnetic radiation (light, x-rays, radio waves). Planets and other objects do not. [The earth seems to, but it is the devices of the people on the earth that are emitting these waves.]

Answer 6

A star is a lot big then a planet ,it has a light of its own where as a planet has no light of its own instead it reflects light
our sun is also a star

Answer 7

If you're looking in the sky, you will notice that stars appear to remain in a fixed position relative to one another. Planets, unlike stars, have a "wandering" characteristic - they don't seem to follow any definite pattern across the sky over time.

Answer 8

A star, Sylvester Stallone.
A planet, his restaurant.

Answer 9

Planets are larger and brighter looking and they also don't twinkle like the stars. I wish I could still see the sky...I moved into Phoenix and it disappeared. Hee hee

Answer 10

Stars twinkle, planets don't.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/