Why do stars twinkle?

Answer 1

We see the stars through the atmosphere. Their light passes through millions of miles of constantly moving pockets and streams of air, which distort the image of the stars.

Even though many stars are much larger than planets, they're so far away from us that they seem smaller, like tiny dots. The distortions make it seem as if the shining lights are moving or blinking. In outer space, where there is no atmosphere, stars don't twinkle..

Answer 2

Stars twinkle because of turbulence in the atmosphere of the Earth. As the atmosphere churns, the light from the star is refracted in different directions. This causes the star's image to change slightly in brightness and position, hence "twinkle." This is one of the reasons the Hubble telescope is so successful: in space, there is no atmosphere to make the stars twinkle, allowing a much better image to be obtained.


Planets do not twinkle the way stars do. In fact, this is a good way of figuring out if a particular object you see in the sky is a planet or a star. The reason is that stars are so far away that they are essentially points of light on the sky, while planets actually have finite size. The size of a planet on the sky in a sense "averages out" the turbulent effects of the atmosphere, presenting a relatively stable image to the eye.

Answer 3

To the best the human eye can see, stars are so far away they appear the same as would infinitesimal points of light. The Earth's atmosphere, however, is clumpy, so that different air pockets produce different images of a single point-like star. Because the atmosphere is always windy and changing, the number and position of images is always changing, with the result that stars appear to twinkle. In reality, the above time-lapse sequence occurs ten times faster. Close inspection will reveal a single small image of the star that is repeated over and over. This image is called a speckle and its size is again not really infinitesimal, but determined by strange quantum effects that involve the finite size of the telescope. Recent work in adaptive optics ("rubber mirrors") have made spectacular advances in reducing this atmospheric blurring. Betelgeuse is the star twinkling above, and in space, above the Earth's atmosphere, it really looks like this

Answer 4

To the best the human eye can see, stars are so far away they appear the same as would infinitesimal points of light. The Earth's atmosphere, however, is clumpy, so that different air pockets produce different images of a single point-like star. Because the atmosphere is always windy and changing, the number and position of images is always changing, with the result that stars appear to twinkle. In reality, the above time-lapse sequence occurs ten times faster. Close inspection will reveal a single small image of the star that is repeated over and over. This image is called a speckle and its size is again not really infinitesimal, but determined by strange quantum effects that involve the finite size of the telescope. Recent work in adaptive optics ("rubber mirrors") have made spectacular advances in reducing this atmospheric blurring. Betelgeuse is the star twinkling above, and in space, above the Earth's atmosphere, it really looks like this.

Answer 5

The stars do not twinkle. They appear as twinkling because of the clouds and the heat of the earth. When the heat goes up it gets reacted with the clouds and we see as stars are twinkling, but in real they do not twinkle.

Answer 6

stars never twinkle......it is due to the long distance b/w the eye and the real thing....it is due to lot of other particles in space specially gases which cause the star to seem as it is blinking.......

and u knw wat what u r seeing rite now in the sky is actully presently not there....it has moved on from it's place due to the long distance of light years b/w it n u it seems it is there but actully it is not there rite now.....it is shwouing you the light dat is threw probably 10 15 years back.....amazing fact ha...


and read this also plz...

Stars twinkle because of turbulence in the atmosphere of the Earth. As the atmosphere churns, the light from the star is refracted in different directions. This causes the star's image to change slightly in brightness and position, hence "twinkle." This is one of the reasons the Hubble telescope is so successful: in space, there is no atmosphere to make the stars twinkle, allowing a much better image to be obtained.


Planets do not twinkle the way stars do. In fact, this is a good way of figuring out if a particular object you see in the sky is a planet or a star. The reason is that stars are so far away that they are essentially points of light on the sky, while planets actually have finite size. The size of a planet on the sky in a sense "averages out" the turbulent effects of the atmosphere, presenting a relatively stable image to the eye.

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 7

Because this makes them more beautiful, imagine they were so steady, they would be like man made lamps.
Oh but wait a minute, even man made lamps twinkle if u look at them at a far distance, like when u watch the city lights from outside the city at night.
When you're far from the source of light, the amount of particles of air between you and the source is bigger, those particles work like an obstacle. To make it more clear imagine there is smoke between you and a distant lamp, or star, the smoke works like air but with more blocking capability.

Answer 8

when light from the star passes the atmosphere it undergoes refraction and it is becoz of this we find that teh stars twinkle. but actually its not the star that twinkles

Answer 9

Stars are huge spinning balls of hot luminous gases.Most stars are made up of two gases-hydrogen and helium.In the centre of the stars ,hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms.During this process huge amounts of energy is released in the form of heat and light.That stars twinkle in the sky.

Answer 10

The rays from stars passes through different medias having varying density. Each time the ray passes from one medium to other it changes its way due to refraction. The density of mediums also remain varying due to temprature change resulting in change of angle of refraction .That is why the stars seen twinkling.