How Stars Twinkle? What is the mechanism?

Question

How Stars Twinkle? What is the mechanism?

Answer 1

The air is different temperatures, moistures and densities.

As the air moves around the light from the star comes through layers that bend it more or less.

Because the star is a point source of light you see it as twinkling when the light is bent in different directions.

Planets don't twinkle because they are large enough to be discs of light.

The twinkle averages out and they appear steady.

Answer 2

bhuddu they are shinyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Answer 3

There is a simple mechanism behind shining stars.Look the light from the stars takes many light years to reach the earth.The light travels throught the earths atmosphere and refraction of light takes place.

Answer 4

the  twinkling  of  stars  is  totally  based  on  "atmospheric  refraction".

i.e.  star  light  after  entering  eaths'  atmosphere  continously  undergo  deviation  from  its  path.since   atmospheric  particles  are  not  stationary,  the  light  appears to  be  twinkling.( it  will  be  more  clear  to  u  if  u  refer  text  book(ncert)  of  class 10)

Answer 5

I believe, and don't quote me, you will need to look it up for a more concrete answer, but I believe, and this is an educated guess, that it is the distortion of the light from the star as it pass through our atmosphere to reach the observers eye.

Answer 6

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

stars never twinkle they look so bcause of refraction as they enter the atmosphere this happens

Answer 8

Moisture and heat in the air cause the density of the air to be erratic.  The more humid / warm air is the more it bends light.  So when you have air with warm and cool patches of aridity and moisture it causes the light from the stars to appear to shift around slightly because it's being bent at different angles as those patches of air move between your eye and the star.  That is the twinkling you see.

Answer 9

they do not twinkle..its due to atmospheric refraction...my science book describes it as--

The twinlking of a star is due to atmospheric refraction of starlight. The starlight,on entering the earth's atmosphere, undergoes refraction continuously before it reacher the earth.. The atmosphereic refraction occurs in a meduim of gradually changing refractive index. Since the atmosphere bends starlight towrds the normal, the apparent position of the star is slightly different from the actual position. The star appears slighly above than its actual positoin when viewed near hirizon. Further, this apparent position of the star is not stationary..it keeps on changing slighly since the physical condition of eatrh's atmosphere are not constant...since stars are very distant, they approximate point--sized source of light..as the path of rays of light coming from the star goes on varying slightly, the apparent position of star fulcates and the amount of light also flickers.-- the sta sometimes appears brigher/lighter..which cause the star to twinkle..

THINK --WHY PLANET DO NOT TWINKLE?

Answer 10

the atmosphere make them look like they twinkle. go out in space and ur see that they dont twinkle, hope i helped

OBAMA 08

Answer 11

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.