Why do stars seem to be twinkling?

Answer 1

Actually, it's because there's so much atmosphere -- the crap really has very little effect on the twinkling; it tends to make stars entirely invisible or dim instead.

The stars twinkle because the air is swirling above and has different temperatures in different parts. On a hot summer's day on the road you can sometimes see a shimmering mirage which looks like a water reflection. This is essentially the same principle, moving the stars slightly in position and in brightness.

This is why the ones on the horizon tend to twinkle more -- they have more atmosphere to go through. That said, stars with larger apparent size (closer or bigger so they seem bigger) twinkle less for the same reason that if you hold a laser pointer and try to keep it steadily pointing in one place at a wall far away, it seems to jump no matter how hard you try; while you can hold a flashlight in such a way that it seems fairly steady. There's just a wider spread of light getting averaged out on your retina. Planets don't seem to twinkle at all because their apparent size is huge, not to mention the moon or the sun.

Answer 2

Because they are light. They shine, Just like candle lights. Candle lights are natural so the twinkle, same with stars.

Answer 3

A short circuit? No? I think if your in space they don't twinkle. So the answer is atmospheric pollution or variations.

Answer 4

On a clear, dark night, our eyes can see about 6,000 or so stars in the sky. They seem to twinkle, or change their brightness, all the time. In fact, most of the stars are shining with a steady light. The movement of air (sometimes called turbulence) in the atmosphere of Earth causes the starlight to get slightly bent as it travels from the distant star through the atmosphere down to us on the ground. This means that some of the light reaches us directly and some gets bent slightly away. To our eyes, this makes the star seem to twinkle.

great question . -B-

Answer 5

Similar to the way that you can see heat above a hot road or any other hot surface, waves of heat in the atmosphere cause the light from heavenly bodies to flicker.

Answer 6

Because there's so much crap in our atmosphere (gasses, pollution, etc) and crap in space that gets in the way between us and the star. All that stuff getting in the way distorts the image.