Why is stars twinkle

These variable stars are well studied and often signal complex physical changes happening to the stars in question. The more rapid changes of scintillation, on the other hand, come about long after the light has left the star. Unlike stars, planets don't twinkle. Stars are so distant that they appear as pinpoints of light in the night sky, even when viewed through a telescope.

Because all the light is coming from a single point, its path is highly susceptible to atmospheric interference i. The much closer planets appear instead as tiny disks in the sky a distinction more easily discerned with a telescope than with the naked eye. Their apparent sizes are usually larger than the pockets of air that would distort their light, so the diffractions cancel out and the effects of astronomical scintillation are negligible.

Star wheels will help you find your way among the twinkling constellations, and you can trace the appearance of the planets along the ecliptic with a Skygazer's Almanac.

I had a random thought, maybe someone out there has a better idea. Another reason stars twinkle might be because of objects traveling in the lights path. Well, if you look at a star through even the biggest telescope, you still just see a tiny point of light. This light comes through the atmosphere in a tiny beam - that can be easily knocked around. That means that the light from those planets comes through the atmosphere in a much thicker beam than that from a star - and that thicker beam is much harder to knock around.

Hello, curious kids! Ask an adult to send your question to us. They can:. Please tell us your name, age, and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! For more on this, read our guide on how to find planets in the night sky. He fell in love with the night sky when he caught his first glimpse of Orion, aged Home Science Why do stars twinkle? Some stars appear to flicker between different colours as their light is distorted by our atmosphere, as this composite image of Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius shows.

Here, the differences in colour are picked up by a DSLR camera. Answer originally posted on August 5, Sign up for our email newsletter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital.