• Question: Why do stars twinkle and planets do not?

    Asked by 468radg37 to Ajay, Kate, Kuntal, Pip, Reka on 8 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Yusufmalik786, ammu.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      Planets appear to twinkle too, the difference is that they do not produce their own light! They seem to ‘twinkle’ because our atmosphere does funny things to light, reflecting it or bending it. If you looked at a star from space, it would not twinkle, because there is no atmosphere to distort the light.

      Stars produce their own light due to the chemical reactions happening in them – these reactions release light, among other things.

      Planets and other objects in space, on the other hand, do not produce their own light – but you can still see some of them at night – like Mars appearing like a more reddish ‘star’, or the Moon appearing very bright. This is because they reflect the light of the Sun.

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