Why do some stars "twinkle" and other do not?

Question

I have been a rank amateur sky watcher for virtually all of my life. I have wondered and cannot find out why some stars "twinkle" and others do not. Also, I am curious as to why some stars seem to change color when they "twinkle" (eg: red to green and back).

Answer 1

The twinkle is caused by atmospheric disturbances, if affects both stars and planets alike.

The lower, in the sky, an object appears the greater the twinkling - but the atmosphere doesn't always have this effect. Sometimes the seeing is "steady" - this is good for imaging the planets and moon and sometimes it is turbulent.

It has nothing to do with the object being a planet or star - in fact to the unaided eye all "star like objects" are point sources...

Ant

Answer 2

the twinkle is in fact stuff up there in the sky like dust and space junk coming between us and the star blocking the light.

Closer the star and less twinkle.

But some stars may even be areoplanes, planets or the ISS

Answer 3

Billy Butthead's answer is the correct one, but only if you ar viewing the star from a location that has an atmosphere.  The stars will not twinkle from space, or from, say, the surface of the moon...  so technically, the stars don't really twinkle at all...  imperfections in the atmosphere create this phenomenon.  

But like I said, Billy got it right, the planets will not twinkle, even though they appear to look like pinpoints of light, even small magnifications can produce "disc-like" images of them, and these discs can compensate for most of the atmospheric instabilities that cause the "twinkling" effect.  Stars, being so far away, at every magnification, are still just pinpoints, and cannot compensate for the turbulence, impurities etc. in the atmosphere...  hence the twinkling!

The twinkling effect is GREATLY exaggerated near the horizon...  can you guess why?  I bet you can!

Answer 4

  All stars twinkle,they are considered a point source of light with no disc,so the slightest movement of air distorts it and causes the twinkle.

  If a star doesn't twinkle you are looking at a planet,which is a disc and does not twinkle.

Answer 5

They seem to be twinkling because of atmospheric pollution. In fact, they do not twinkle

Answer 6

I have it on good authority only the little stars twinkle

Dont you guys remember twinkle twinkle little star

Answer 7

Many of those stars depends on the light of the sun to be shiny. The moon is one of them. While others, are stars that are very far away

from us, with our naked eyes, we see them so tiny. In fact, they are bigger than our sun. And they aglore like the sun.