Sometimes it seems they r turnd on and off
2006-09-08 23:37:41 · 11 answers · asked by Andre Lommies 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The light gets distorted as it passes through the earth's atmosphere. If you go into outer space and observe stars from there, they won't flicker!
2006-09-08 23:43:49 · answer #1 · answered by Bramblyspam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My father always got this question wrong. He thought that it was because the light traveled so far from those stars to us here on the Earth. No. The stars "twinkle and flicker" due to the heat radiation waves affecting our atmosphere-! Sometimes you can see "wiggling" of a road surface in the distance if the road is hot, or - sometimes you can see the air "wiggling" over a car hood on a hot day after the car has been running for a while. Above our atmosphere and thermal effects, the stars would look the same!
2006-09-09 17:37:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Air turbulence mainly. They really flicker right after a cold front comes thru.
The various pockets of slightly differing densities create an affect sort of like a bunch of lenses, slightly bending the light too and fro. Adaptive optics monitors this affect with an artificial star from a laser beam and warps the telescope mirror to offset the atmospheric distortion.
2006-09-08 23:47:18 · answer #3 · answered by SAN 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gave this answer for another question. Hope it helps!~
Stars are suns. Planets reflect light, so you can see them in the night sky. A simple way to tell the difference is to see if they twinkle/flash, or if it is one constant color. A sun or star, emits light that can be broken down into several colors. put a prism or crystal into sunlight & see the diffrent colors it reflects?
A star from very far away sheds a large amount of light, but we actually see a small part of it. This is why they 'twinkle' diffrent colors.
When light hits something closer, then is reflected back, we see a more constsnt, solid color, as with planets.
2006-09-09 07:59:39 · answer #4 · answered by Koklor 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not the stars themselves, but the refraction of the light through our atmosphere. Tiny currents of warmer or cooler air cause the path of the light to bend from side to side. It does not bend very much, but the atmosphere is miles thick and it only has to bend just far enough to make the starlight miss your eye. It seems to have gone out for an instant, and then, there it is, back again. We call that twinkling.
2006-09-09 00:09:41 · answer #5 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the light from a star passes through out atmosphere it is scattered (in much the same way as why the sky is blue) creating a flickering (or twinkling) effect.
2006-09-08 23:41:06 · answer #6 · answered by dunnerzplant 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the air between your eyes and the starlight keeps changing in density therefore changing the refractive index so the light gets bent at a different angle then when the same density of air occurs the light gets back to your eyes and you see the star again. twinkle twinkle little star how i wonder what you are.
2006-09-08 23:56:47 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stars only flicker while they are burning out, which is constant. The ones you see that are not flickering? Those are satellites. Amazing.
2006-09-08 23:44:10 · answer #8 · answered by Barbara 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they are big balls of gas and fire. Just like a camp fire they flicker!
2006-09-09 00:16:50 · answer #9 · answered by denise r 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
to attract our attention
2006-09-08 23:43:02 · answer #10 · answered by reza 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋