Science · 6 pages · 12 min
Why planets do not twinkle the way stars do
Planets usually shine steady because they are tiny disks, while stars are points.
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From the opening
Planets usually shine more steadily than stars because a planet shows a tiny disk, while a star is effectively a point. Turbulent air bends each ray, and a disk averages many such bends at once while a point cannot. The opening covers why a point source flickers, why a tiny disk averages out, and what scintillation means.
The rest of the brief — the later sections and the reading notes — opens after Stripe confirms payment.
Inside
- Why a point source flickers
- Why a tiny disk averages out
- What scintillation means
- When a planet still shimmers
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Atmospheric scintillation of unresolved sources
- The angular size of planets versus stars