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The scientific term for the twinkling of stars is “stellar scintillation”.
The twinkling of stars is caused by turbulence in the Earth’s
atmosphere. When you look at a star from the surface of the Earth,
you are looking at it through many layers of different elements.
As the light travels from the star to your eye, it encounters
changes in density (hot air is less dense than cold air). Hitting
these changes in density causes the light to bend, and the human
eye interprets this motion as twinkling; like looking through
the air just above a candle causes things behind the candle appear
to warp and wiggle. Stars closer to the horizon twinkle more than
stars directly overhead, because the light from stars on the horizon
passes through more of the atmosphere from that angle.
If you were to look at the stars from outer space, they would
not appear to twinkle, because there is no atmosphere to disturb
your viewing.
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