Because the air is turbulent due to winds and temperature differences. It's like looking at distant lights across a valley or across a body of water. It's the same effect. The moving air and different densities bend the light and make it look like it twinkles.
2007-01-23 04:22:27
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answer #1
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answered by Gene 7
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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).
2007-01-23 12:53:03
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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It is not that they have a secret to keep. It is due to the densities found in the air. Light rays are refracted with the air and the air movement causes the stars to appear to twinkle.
2007-01-23 12:25:54
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answer #3
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answered by Kerry 7
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All the stars are like our Sun. They burn continiously like our sun and due to the large distance between them and earth, they seem to be twinkling.
They also appear to be smaller in size than the sun and the moon because of the same reason. But, the fact is, some stars are very big when compared to the sun.
Added to this, the size of a star depends upon:- how much gas (fuel to burn) does it have and the age of it.
The nearest star to our galaxy is Alpha centuri and it is about 4.3 light years away from us. The distance between stars are measured in terms of "light years". when it comes to measurement of distance within our solar system Astronomical Unit (AU) is used.
1 AU = the distance between the sun and the earth.
2007-01-24 12:19:17
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answer #4
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answered by vidhya sagar 2
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Stars twinkle because of nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion is the process when deaturiom and tritum collides and makes heat and energy and light
2007-01-23 13:22:23
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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It is because the air layers are moving. Or your eyes are getting tired. Star light, whose intensity is constant, will not twinkle if it is observed from an orbit above the atmosphere, such as Hubble's
telescope.
2007-01-23 13:09:49
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answer #6
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answered by chanljkk 7
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Stars doesn't twinkle.They produce light continuously,but due to the dust and pollution and clouds it appears to twinkle
2007-01-24 01:55:30
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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the light from a star reaches us after passing through different layers of atmosphere. physical conditions e.g temprature, refractive index, density etc. of different layers of atmosphere are different and are changing due to atmospheric disturbances. therefore not only the amount of light entering our eyr changes but also the position of image of the star changes slightly. this gives twinkling effects.
2007-01-23 12:29:41
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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earth and star in between in there is atmosphear which have different air density there4 different R.I(refractive index) there4 when light travel from outer atm 2 innet atm the permeability of mediam change's and light scattering occur ,and also impt fact is that the air flow will change the air density there4 the R.I change each time and hence star appear to be twinkles.
2007-01-23 12:54:16
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answer #9
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answered by ganesh s 1
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The light from these stars are coming through the atmosphere. The atmosphere distorts the light.
2007-01-23 12:58:31
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answer #10
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answered by bldudas 4
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