What causes stars to "flicker" with light?

Answer 1

Actually the stars are not flickering.They seem to be so by the disturbances in the earth's atmosphere.
Our atmosphere contains many layers of different densities.When the light from the star passes through the atmosphere,it is refracted by the different layers of varying density.As these layers are constantly moving with respect to the other in a to and fro motion parallel to the surface of the earth,the light ray is also subjected to a to and fro motion which looks like flickering.

Answer 2

the flickers you might see in the stars is the hydrogen constantly getting used up as fuel by the star. The reason you don't see this in some stars is that its more noticable in stars with a greater absolute magnatude (absolute magnatude is how big the stars really are, apperent magnatude is how big the stars look like from here on Earth), stars that are bigger burn hydrogen faster and thus the flickering occurs more often, of course this is a very brief summary since stars are much more complex but i trust this will have answered your question. Have fun star gazing

Answer 3

It is caused by the atmospheric disturbances of the earth. Everything from the particulates in the air to the heat rising off of the surface of the planet. If you compare the view of the stars towards the horizon to the stars that are directly overhead, you can see the difference in the twinkles too because you are looking through more of our atmosphere if you are looking towards the horizon. When in space such as to those on the ISS, the stars do not twinkle at all.

Answer 4

Stars do not flicker on their own, the light is constant.

The flickering that we see at night is from the heat currents and wind currents in the atmosphere. Not sure if the magnetic filed of our planet has anything to do with this as well or not.