Name: helen m vonderheide
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
Why do stars twinkle?
Replies:
Earth's atmosphere is turbulent. When light from stars passes through
the atmosphere, it gets refracted from the straight line path. As a result
of this, the light reaches us from different points in the sky. These
directions are actually very close to each other but not the same. This
shifting of the image results in what we call twinkling. Twinkling can
effect objects with size smaller than the shift caused by atmosphere,
therefore, only stars twinkle and not the Sun, Moon or the Planets.
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