what makes a star sparkle?

Question

looking to find if star is planet or asteroid

Answer 1

it is basically clouds of burning gas which distorts the light from the stars

Answer 2

You have a lot of good answers there, so I will not repeat what has already been said. Though I might say that they twinkle, rather than sparkle. Remember the verse: Twinkle, twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky'. Having said that, a few of the objects up there are planets, but it's unlikely you would be able to see an asteroid without a 'scope.

Answer 3

Stars "sparkle" because they are point sources of light; when light from a star passes through the atmosphere, layers of different density cause the light to shift slightly in direction and intensity, causing the "twinkle" effect.

The major planets don't "twinkle" or "sparkle", because they are actually resolvable disks and the effect is minimal compared to the disk size. The light is perturbed the same way as stars, but you don't notice it due to the multiple points that make up the disk.

Now, other light sources in the sky can vary in light intensity...satellites and asteroids can rotate, presenting different sides to the sun and causing a pseudo-twinkle effect.

Here's how you tell the difference:

1) twinkling is random, rotation is rhythmic
2) satellites and asteroids move against the starfield over time (satellites faster than asteroids, obviously).

Planets move against the starfield over time, too, which is why they were once referred to as "the wanderers".

Hope this helps!


steve

Answer 4

Stars tend to sparkle because of the way they look when filtered through the Earth's atmosphere. In reality, the atmosphere is distorting the light and bending it so that it appears to move very slightly--our eyes detect this slight movement as the characteristic twinkle of stars. If we were on a planet with no atmosphere, the stars would not do this.

Answer 5

Stars illuminate by what is basically a hydrogren explosion. Because it is in it's own atmosphere it will take a while to burn out. So a star is a burning ball of gas, a planet is a solid mass orbitting a star (in our case the planet is the earth and the star is the sun), but an astroid is a big chunk of rock. I think that it should be possible to use one of these to travel into deep space but that may be influenced by Star Treck.

Answer 6

Only a few correct answers

The stars are so far away that even giant telescope do not show them as disks.

Even with a small telescope, the nearer planets show disks.

Stars twinkle because being just points of light with no size, they are unduly affected by atmospheric disturbances.

Note, that even the planets twinkle when low in the sky and are seen through much thicker atmosphere.

Answer 7

Stars are a point of light, planets have width.

The particles of light from stars therefore have a single path through the atmosphere so will be influenced greatly by refraction and atmospheric effects. We observe this as twinkling.

Because the planets are discernible as a disc, there will be very many paths for the light through the atmosphere. These all add together to counteract the effects of the single paths mentioned above.

I hope that makes sense.

Answer 8

Stars are suns. The more distant ones seem to sparkle because of the distorting effect of Earth's atmosphere.The planets visible to the naked eye are Venus, Jupiter, and sometimes Mars. Their light will be steady, and they are generally larger in appearance

Answer 9

Starlight is a stream of photons from a very distant point source of light with no measurable diameter (to the naked eye). Anything in the atmosphere that can distort the stream of photons will cause the star to twinkle. On a hot day you can see how temperature differences of air over a distant stretch of road can cause the road to wiggle and mirages are atmospheric disturbances of images. Air does not transmit light as undistorted as the vacuum of space can.

Answer 10

A planet does not sparkle. You can't see the asteriod with your naked eye. Star twinkle because their light when reach earth is weak and when they pass through several layers of air, is diffused. So they twinkle.

Answer 11

What makes a star sparkle is that they take a lot of vitamins.