why do stars blink and planets don't??????????

Answer 1

That's a myth; They both "twinkle". Atmosphere distorts all light, regardless of where it's coming from.

Answer 2

They do twinkle, but usually less than stars. It is because they have an apparent disk of a size that, although too small to see without a telescope, smooths out the twinkling effect compared to a star, which looks like an infinitely small point of light, even in a telescope. The Moon is an extreme example, It has an apparent disk so large that you can easily see it, it is a circle in the sky, not just a point, so it never twinkles. Sometimes, when the air is really unsteady, you can see it shimmer. Especially in a telescope which magnifies the shimmering just as much as it does the details on the Moon. For a small enough point of light, that shimmering looks like blinking, and planets are usually not quite small enough in the sky.

Answer 3

Blinking is caused by the atmospheric turbulance slightly changing the direction of light so that at a given location on the retina of your eye, what once was light is now dark and vice versa. Because Planets have an extended disk the amount of area on your retina which actually changes between light and dark is relatively small in relation to the size of the lit disk. Since a star is much much further away and as a result more of a point source virtually the entire lit area is variable .

Answer 4

Planets are fairly close to us (in relative terms).

Stars other than the Sun are vast distances away from us - distances measured in Light Years. Light from the stars comes to us through the Earth's atmosphere which tends to bend it and possibly alter the polarity of the light rays some. And, as a result we get a twinkle effect.

Light we see from the Planets is actually light from the Sun reflecting off of the surface of the Planets and dust rings themselves. There are so many wrinkles and mountains and irregular surfaces on those planets that the light we see is not of a single polarity, but a combination of polarities. So the interfeering action of our Earth's atmosphere is less apparent when looking at Planets.

Answer 5

Planets do undergo the same atmospheric distortion but since they are extended objects (In a telescope, they can be seen as a disk), the refraction on one end is compensated for by the refraction on the on the end. Stars are point objects and thus twinkle.

Answer 6

1. Because stars give off light and planets don't.
2. Because of Earth's atmosphere, the vision of our stars is a little messed up. They appear to twinkle but they actually don't.

Answer 7

Planets DO blink. To our eyes at least.

Take a look at Venus, Jupiter or Saturn when they're at a viewable angle in the sky...

Answer 8

Stars are so far away they are considered a point light source with no disc and no diameter even a slight variation in the atmosphere distorts the image causing it to twinkle.
A planet is close enough to present a disc,small variations in the atmosphere don"t affect it so they don"t twinkle.

Answer 9

because stars are further away, more effected by atmospheric distortion, since light weaker.

blink or twinkle twinkle little star

Answer 10

In Stars there is continuous combustion of hydrogen and forms helium. whereas in planets it is not so....there is no combustion...
So when we look at stars , it looks like as though it blinks.even our sun is a star. when we look at our sun from a distant place, even it will blink.whereas our earth will not.