Practicing Success
Stars gives twinkling effect but a planet does not give twinkling effect. Which of the following reason(s) is responsible for such observation? |
The planets are much closer to the earth Planets are point size sources Stars are very distant point size sources Both Option 1 and Option 3 |
Both Option 1 and Option 3 |
Since the stars are very distant, they approximate point-sized sources of light. As the path of rays of light coming from the star goes on varying slightly, the apparent position of the star fluctuates and the amount of starlight entering the eye flickers – the star sometimes appears brighter, and at some other time, fainter, which is the twinkling effect. The planets are much closer to the earth and are thus seen as extended sources. If we consider a planet as a collection of a large number of point-sized sources of light, the total variation in the amount of light entering our eye from all the individual point-sized sources will average out to zero, thereby nullifying the twinkling effect. |