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Adaptation

In Astronomy by Brian Koberlein0 Comments

If you’ve ever looked up in the night sky you’ve seen the twinkling of the stars. This twinkle is not due to the stars themselves, but to the turbulent motion of the Earth’s atmosphere. As starlight enters our atmosphere, the variations in density in turbulent air cause the light wave fronts to distort. So instead of reaching the telescope evenly like even rows of a band on parade, the wave fronts come in uneven and wobbly. This wobbly behavior is why stars appear to twinkle.