why stars twinkle?

Answer 1

The scientific name for the twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation (or astronomical scintillation). Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere.

Stars (except for the Sun) appear as tiny dots in the sky; as their light travels through the many layers of the Earth's atmosphere, the light of the star is bent (refracted) many times and in random directions (light is bent when it hits a change in density - like a pocket of cold air or hot air). This random refraction results in the star winking out (it looks as though the star moves a bit, and our eye interprets this as twinkling).

Stars closer to the horizon appear to twinkle more than stars that are overhead - this is because the light of stars near the horizon has to travel through more air than the light of stars overhead and so is subject to more refraction. Also, planets do not usually twinkle, because they are so close to us; they appear big enough that the twinkling is not noticeable (except when the air is extremely turbulent).

Stars would not appear to twinkle if we viewed them from outer space (or from a planet/moon that didn't have an atmosphere).

Answer 2

Why Do Stars Twinkle?
Stars twinkle because of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere. You can think as the atmosphere being made up of several "layers." Each layer has a different temperature and density. As the light from a star passes through the atmosphere, it is bent by each layer, and we perceive the twinkling.

Answer 3

The scientific name for the twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation (or astronomical scintillation). Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere.

Stars (except for the Sun) appear as tiny dots in the sky; as their light travels through the many layers of the Earth's atmosphere, the light of the star is bent (refracted) many times and in random directions (light is bent when it hits a change in density - like a pocket of cold air or hot air). This random refraction results in the star winking out (it looks as though the star moves a bit, and our eye interprets this as twinkling).

Stars closer to the horizon appear to twinkle more than stars that are overhead - this is because the light of stars near the horizon has to travel through more air than the light of stars overhead and so is subject to more refraction. Also, planets do not usually twinkle, because they are so close to us; they appear big enough that the twinkling is not noticeable (except when the air is extremely turbulent).

Stars would not appear to twinkle if we viewed them from outer space (or from a planet/moon that didn't have an atmosphere).

Answer 4

Did you know that the scientific name for twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation(or astronomical scintillation).. now that you know that, you can enjoy your coffee better....

Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere.

Stars (except for the Sun) appear as tiny dots in the sky; as their light travels through the many layers of the Earth's atmosphere, the light of the star is bent (refracted) many times and in random directions (light is bent when it hits a change in density - like a pocket of cold air or hot air). This random refraction results in the star winking out (it looks as though the star moves a bit, and our eye interprets this as twinkling).

Answer 5

we know that stars emit there own light.due to this light, the stars shine in the night sky.now,when we look at a star in the sky on a clear night,we observe that the intensity of light coming from it changes continously.at one moment the star appears to be very bright, and the next moment it becomes very dim.in fact, te stars go on becoming bright and dim, bright and dim,again and again. and we say that the stars twinkle at night. the twinkling of a star is due to the atmospheric refraction of star's light.

when the light coming from a star enters the earth's atmosphere,it undergoes refraction due to the varying optical densities of air at various atitudes.The atmosphere is continously changing (due to which the optical densities of air at different levels in the atmosphere keep on the changing).the continously changing atmosphere refracts the light from the stas by diffrent amounts from one moment to the next.when the atmosphere refracts more star light towards us, the star appears to be bright and when the atmosphere refracts less star light,then the stars appears to be dim.in this way,the star light reaching our eyes increases and decreases continously due to atmospheric refraction.and the stars appears to twinkle at night.

Answer 6

Changes in atmospheric density change the path of the light, making it look like it's jumping or twinkling.

Answer 7

They don't. It's the atmosphere of the earth that makes them appear to twinkle. In all reality, stars are made just like our sun is; are just great big balls of gas.

Answer 8

Earth's atmosphere makes them twinkle.

Answer 9

The atmosphere does a bit to it, but also stars are far far away. The light has to travel a lot to get to us. On the way it can get manipulated by e.g. magnetic fields etc. Did you know that the light they produce is a consequence of constant nuclear fusion inside the stars core?

Answer 10

they appear to twinkle because the little light that they emit that reachs our eyes is bent and shifted constantly as it travels through the earth's atmosphere.