Why do the lights look like the twinkle at night?

Question

house lights, street lights, building lights, not stars -- oopsie i should have made more sense -

Answer 1

from atmospheric disturbances like wind, humidity, pollutants, change in temperature...  the atmosphere is not so different from looking into a tide pool... unlike a fish tank where the surface of the water is as smooth as glass. If you were to ride on a space shuttle beyond the atmosphere of the earth the stars would not shimmer.

Answer 2

Have you ever looked at a hot patch of pavement, and noticed how the ground seems to waver around a little bit? This is because the hot rising air has all sorts of minute differences in density because of the varying temperatures. The different densities in the air cause the light to change speeds just a little bit, and refract it along changing trajectories. Your eye perceives this as movement.

The atmosphere has the same thing happening, but it's not pronounced enough to be seen by the human eye on large objects like the clouds or the Moon and Sun. Stars are so far away, though, that they appear as single points of light. Even the tiny refractions caused by the atmosphere are enough to disrupt their appearance. That's why they twinkle.

Interestingly, even though planets look the same as the stars do from Earth, they're actually close enough that they're not point sources of light, so planets almost never twinkle. That's the easiest way to tell the difference between a star and a planet.

Answer 3

I love this question.

The stars are very bright but are so far away that they appear as infinitesimal points. This allows the movement of the air to refract the light causing the light of the star to move back and forth, this is the twinkle.

Planets don't twinkle because they are near enough that they don't appear as small points. The light is spread out over a larger area (though still small due to their distance) so the light kinda averages out so small movements of air won't afffect the image hitting your too much.

=)

Answer 4

I assume you're talking about the stars.  They twinkle because you're looking at them through the atmosphere which bends light.

Answer 5

do to atmosphere disturbances such as dust.

Answer 6

Interesting answers, but if mightaswel is right and our atmosphere bends light.... how come planets do not twinkle while stars do??? hmm...