Why the Stars Twinkle at Night in the Sky ?

Why the stars twinkle at night in the sky? Whenever we see the sky at the nights, we see thousands of stars in the sky. Sometimes few stars look twinkling or we see a change in the brightness level of the start. So, Do the stars twinkle at night? Do starts blink at night?

Why the Stars Twinkle at Night in the Sky

The answer is No they dont. Stars do not really twinkle, they just appear to twinkle when seen from the surface of Earth. The stars twinkle in the night sky because of the effects of the Earths atmosphere. When the light of the star enters the Earth atmosphere, it is affected by winds in the atmosphere and by areas with different temperatures and densities. This causes the light from the star to spread and follow a zig-zag path when it reaches to our eyes on the ground. And, so it appears to us that stars are twinkling.

So the summary of the answer is the twinkling of stars in our night sky is down to the Earths atmosphere. As light from the stars travels towards Earth it can easily move in a straight line, but once it starts traveling through the Earth atmosphere it gets bounced around in different directions by the particles in the air.

You will notice that stars closer to the horizon will appear to twinkle more than other stars. This is because there is a lot more atmosphere between you and a star near the horizon than between you and a star higher in the sky.

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