Why do stars flicker?

Question

i see stars and some tend to flicker, why is that? and someone take me tio see the stars too XD

Answer 1

no they dont

it appears so cuz the light emittd frm tha star undergoes continues refraction becuz of earth atmospheric layers

it twinkles bcuz the weather on the earth is nt constant it is always changin .............for mre  log on 2 wikipedia.com

Answer 2

Stars don't flicker but appear to flicker because of the variations in refractive index of the several layers of air through which the light passes, resulting in the beam changing its intensity when it reaches our eyes. Light from Sun, Moon and other planets also suffers similarly but the effect is less noticeable because of their stronger light.  

Answer 3

Some afternoon on a hot,windless day, take a look at a car that has been sitting in the sun for awhile.  Get down a bit and look directly across the hood.  You should see a bit of a shimmer as the hot metal heats the particles in the air and causes them to move off to be replaced by cooler particles.  This also works when you have a good unobstructed view of a road over a long distance on a hot day.  Now, imagine all the heating and cooling of the air over the entire planet and how it moves about.  It is all those moving chunks of air of differing densities that cause the stars to twinkle.  Possibly some water vapor and pollutants as well, but mostly just moving air.

Answer 4

stars fliker because of the difference between refractive index of the atmosphere and the space out there

Answer 5

When viewed without a telescope, planets appear to be dots of light in the sky. They shine steadily, while stars seem to twinkle. Twinkling results from turbulence in Earth's atmosphere. Stars are so far away that they appear as tiny points of light. A moment of turbulence can change that light for a fraction of a second. Even though they look the same size as stars to unaided human eyes, planets are close enough that they take up more space in the sky than stars do. The disks of planets are big enough to average out variations in light caused by turbulence and therefore do not twinkle.

Answer 6

Because of the Earth's atmosphere!

Answer 7

  Stars are so far away that they show no disc they are a point of light.

  Any slight variation in the density of the atmosphere refracts the whole star making it wobble or twinkle.

  Planets are small but they show a disc so the atmosphere won't affect the whole disc at once.

Answer 8

The flicker or twinkle, is to to the light from the star being slightly interfered with as it passes through our atmosphere.  If you were in orbit or on a planet without an atmosphere, this phenomenon would not  be noticeable.