• Question: Why do stars twinkle?

    Asked by to sakshisharda on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sakshi Sharda

      Sakshi Sharda answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hi 13eneale

      Good question!!
      Stars only seem to twinkle, in really they do not. When light from the star hits our eye it has travelled billions and billions of kilometers and has taken years to reach us. Now when the light enters our atmosphere, it refracts (or bends) because the different density of the air in different layers of the atmosphere. (This is similar to why we perceive a pencil partially immersed in water to be bent when it’s actually not.) So in other words, the light from the star does not travel in straight line, it bends many times over when it enters the atmosphere. Now the twinkling is due to constant movement of the atmospheric layers, the light is constantly bending in different ways to reach our eye. This means that every single second we perceive slight movement of the star because of this bending and this happens so fast that our eyes cannot detect this, we think that the star is twinkling! good illusion huh 😉

      Hope this helps!

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