The stars appear to twinkle as you look up at the sky on a clear night. One of the most popular children's songs of all time is based on the concept.
What is the science behind this bright sight? Is there a reason why stars make them twinkle?
It turns out that "twinkle, twinkle, little star" isn't really what it sounds like.
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The truth is that stars don't twinkle. The stars don't have anything to do with twinkling. It's a result of how we view them.
Stars are small points of light in the night sky.
The sun's average distance to Earth is more than 100 million miles.
The key driver of the twinkling effect is the light that comes from distant stars.
"As this point of light reaches the atmosphere, it passes through layers of wobbling air before reaching our eyes," French said.
Stars appear to twinkle when Earth's atmosphere is wobbly. Stars are not twinkle at all in space. The Hubble Space Telescope can get sharper images of space without the images being distorted by atmospheric turbulence.
A star's appearance can be affected by many factors. The star's place is one of the variables.
French said that stars near the horizon appear to twinkle more because their light has to travel through more atmosphere to reach us.
The weather is a factor. The air will be thicker whenHumid nights occur.
Astronomers use these issues to decide where to put the world's biggest and best telescopes. servatories are placed in high, dry places to remove the air between the star and telescope.
The volcanic peaks of Hawaii and the Spanish Canary Islands are ideal places to visit. Astronomers refer to these locations as good seeing. Good seeing is created by dry, calm and thin air.
Some stars appear to change colors as they twinkle in the night sky. The bright star in the night sky is called Sirius.
The atmosphere can cause the light to change color. It's more noticeable with brighter stars.
Some stars do not twinkle at all. They are planets. According to French, planets are not point sources in the sky. They are close to us. They are too large in the sky for the atmosphere to make them twinkle.
If you use a telescope to look at the planets or the moon, you'll see that the light you're seeing has been thrown off by the atmosphere.
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