Why do stars twinkle and planets don't?

accordionman

Stars are made of hydrogen and other gases. The burning of these gases creates the twinking light. Planets on the other hand act like mirrors, and therefore just reflect and don't twinkle. Oct 31 04, 3:22 PM

jbean

Stars, even when viewed through most small telescopes appear as points of light. Planets, on the other hand are much closer to earth and reflect a great deal of light back towards the earth. Though they don't twinkle, planets may appear to shimmer when viewed through a telescope depending on viewing conditions. Oct 31 04, 7:12 PM

Legolaschic

Stars twinkle because they are far away, and appear as tiny points of light in the sky. Some of the light is absorbed by the air in the Earth's atmosphere, making the star appear to twinkle. Planets are a lot closer to the Earth so they look bigger and the air doesn't interrupt the light as much. Here's a link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/stars/twinkle/index.shtml Oct 31 04, 9:02 PM

Baloo55th

It is down to the atmosphere and planets being nearer. Although stars produce a heck of a lot of light (they're suns, remember?) they're a heck of a long way away so not much of their light gets to us. Planets do not produce any light themselves, but the thing they're reflecting is comparatively close so what gets reflected is much stronger than what we get from the far off stars. Some light is absorbed by the dust, etc. in the atmosphere, so the weaker sources end up twinkling. Nov 01 04, 2:40 PM

What-A-Mess

The Earth's atmosphere refracts, bends, warps, reflects and distorts the very brilliant, linear light waves from the Sun. "The scientific name for the twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation (or astronomical scintillation). Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere." http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/twinkle.shtml Mar 02 07, 6:17 PM

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Why do stars twinkle? Why do stars flicker? Why do some planets have rings? Are there any stars orbiting planets?

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