Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Why do stars twinkle?

Why do stars twinkle?

ANS 1: Stars twinkle because light rays are distorted when they enter the atmosphere.

ANS 2: Stars are a long way away and so the pinpoint of light is fine, this gets distorted by the Earth's atmosphere. Planets, being closer to us despite not being so large have a wider point, thus the edges distort but not the central point, so planets don't twinkle. Incidentally, from space stars don't twinkle.

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