Have you ever looked up on a clear night at the stars and noticed that some of them seemed to twinkle or dance? This twinkling is due to the Earth’s atmosphere. When light reaches Earth from a star, it travels in a straight line through space, then enters our atmosphere.
At this point, the light goes through layers of air at different temperatures and densities, which causes light to bend and waver. This bending of light is what causes the star to twinkle or flicker, a phenomenon called stellar scintillation.
What about the planets
Not all celestial objects twinkle. Planets, like Venus or Jupiter, shine with a constant light. The reason for this is they tend to present larger disks in the sky, so the little shifting that occurs in the atmosphere averages out. Planets shine like bright, calm beacons, while stars sparkle like diamonds.
Twinkling Depends on Position
Stars that are near the horizon twinkle more because the light has to travel through a larger section of atmosphere. Stars that are directly above or overhead have less atmosphere to travel through and will twinkle less, giving an observer an easily noticed and natural observation of how the Earth’s atmosphere interacts with starlight.
Twinkling Stars: A Science Lesson.
Twinkling stars are more than just beautiful to observe; they can illustrate a fun science lesson of motion, light, and atmosphere. The next time you scan the sky for stars, pay attention to which ones twinkle the most and which twinkle the least.
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