Why do the stars twinkle

We could possibly looking at a very busy space, instead of the predictable space we know now. Log in to Reply. Interesting line of thought. It was proposed that stellar scintillation, could be due to the turbulence in the Oort cloud, the great envelope of debris and pristine stellar mass surrounding the solar system.

This could very conveniently also explain why planets, moon, satellite do not scintillate. Because they are within the Oort cloud! Now, it would be very easy to verify this, right?

We just have to ask the astronauts! We did. By: Richard S. Wright Jr. October 19, By: Monica Young September 28, Imaging Foundations with Richard Wright. September 16, August 16, July 15, By: Maria Temming July 15, Beyond the Printed Page. Stargazing Basics. But in reality, the atmosphere is always moving, and winds at every level will cause slight differences to shift around, and different densities bend light at different amounts.

This will result in the light from the star as a zig-zag movement as they come close to our eyes making it appear to twinkle. A little bit of more apparent disk will take a lot more bending of the incoming light for the rays from all parts of the disk to get bent away from your direction so that large objects would appear to blink momentarily and so appear to twinkle. It also depends upon the condition that happens in the air above you at any given time.

During clear nights, there will be a lot of rolling in the atmosphere, and the stars will appear to twinkle more. On other nights, when the upper air is calm, twinkling will not happen as it ought to be. The whole effect can be compared to what you see when you are at the bottom of a swimming pool during bright sunlight.

If the water surface is wavy, there will be a lot of moving light and dark patterns on the pool floor. If there is no disturbance and the surface of the water is smooth, and there is no wind, then the moving pattern will disappear. Why do Stars Twinkle and Planets do not? When the light from the stars enters the atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules and scatters reflection and interference. Planets are a collection of a large number of point sources of light, whereas stars are considered to have a point source.

We are able to see a tiny beam of light from it as the star is so far away from it. This light will get scattered from our eyes and then back into them, almost like it is blinking on and off. The process is so fast it appears like twinkling. As compared to stars, planets are closer to us and send more light; even if some light beams get scattered away, others get to us.

So, planets do not usually twinkle. Explain why Planets do not Twinkle. Planets do not twinkle because of the following reasons:.