I live in Eastern Florida, USA. I noticed tonight at 10:20 PM a star between Orion and the horizon in the east, keeps changing colors between blue, red, light green, white, and it does this quickly. Does anybody in the astronomy community perhaps know what's going on? Has this star finished burning it's hydrogen and is now burning it's helium? I just thought it was odd and at first I thought it was a helicopter, but since it hasn't moved for the last 20 minutes, I'm ruling that out, thanks for any help.
2007-11-29 14:24:30 · 9 answers · asked by NIKNAR 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
If definately sounds like Sirius, from the location you gave. If you follow a line drawn from Orion's belt and extend it out to the "left" of Orion (which would be east and toward the horizon at the time of night you're looking) you'll run into Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
Especially when it's low on the horizon, like it is at the time you're looking at it, it can appear to change colors. It's not really, it's just that Earth's atmosphere has a lot of stuff in it (dust, air molecules, water) and all that stuff moves around. Stars are so far away that their apparent size to our eyes is pretty small. So the stuff in our atmosphere, bouncing around, actually blocks out a pretty good portion of the star when it moves in front of it. This causes the star to "twinkle". Also, the star's light bends around our atmospheric stuff (dust, air molecules, water), causing it to change colors. This effect is more pronounced when stars are closer to the horizon because we're looking through a larger slice of Earth's atmosphere to see the star.
Sirius is a white class A star, 26 times larger than the sun, and it's only 8.6 light years away (that's pretty close)! Sirius is actually a binary star. It has a smaller white dwarf companion, but you'd need a really big scope to see it.
By the way, as I was looking at Sirius this morning it appeared to change from bright blue to gree to an almost teal color. Very pretty!
Also, one final note, even planets can "twinkle" sometimes, when they are close to the horizon, for the reasons I mentioned above.
2007-11-29 14:49:01 · answer #1 · answered by kyeri y 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I would have to concur with the answers that say it is because of the earth's atmosphere rather than the star itself. It is kind of like what happens during a sunset or sunrise. As the sun moves up from the horizon, the distance the sun light travels through the atmosphere to reach you becomes less and less as it reaches the mid day then the distance begins to lengthen as it moves back down to the horizon. As light travels through the atmosphere the light spectrum is filtered(there are other variables that affect what visual light we see) allowing us to see different parts of the light spectrum. As the distance it travels through the atmosphere changes and as the angle changes so does the visible light which we can see.This not the best scientific explanation, but did not want to get to technical.
2007-11-29 21:47:51 · answer #2 · answered by Just FYI Guy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're seeing Sirius, which is the brightest fixed star in the sky. When it's low on the horizon like that, you get rapidly changing refraction effects. This causes the star to twinkle heavily, and sometimes the red or blue parts of its spectrum hit your eye preferentially. This is what causes the apparent change in color.
2007-11-29 14:31:17 · answer #3 · answered by Keith P 7 · 7⤊ 0⤋
The object you describe sounds like the very bright star Sirius. The variations in color you're seeing are nothing more than the light from Sirius being distorted and changed by Earth's atmosphere.
2007-11-29 14:33:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
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2016-10-09 22:46:26 · answer #5 · answered by owen 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is just normal twinkling. Any bright star seen in very turbulent air can twinkle in different colors.
2007-11-29 14:34:26 · answer #6 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Are you sure it is not some sort of radio tower or some other long thin structure? A star which is changing color....nothing really comes to mind.
My 13 year old mind cannot answer this
2007-11-29 14:32:45 · answer #7 · answered by Termite 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Lol, i was about to say a high flying airplane until i saw the rest of these fascinating answers.
2007-11-29 15:54:30 · answer #8 · answered by syaorannivek 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is free ware that will help you.
http://www.stellarium.org/
It is a variable star. Gets its colors from the atmosphere of the earth. I cant tell from your description if you are talking about Arcturus or Spika. That software will tell you for sure.
2007-11-29 14:32:20 · answer #9 · answered by B. 7 · 0⤊ 5⤋