‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ isn’t just a nursery rhyme: it’s an astronomical phenomenon called ‘atmospheric scintillation’. But what causes it? Martin Fone takes a look at why stars twinkle.
Since time immemorial we have been fascinated by the sight of stars twinkling in a clear night sky. The practised eye of an imaginative onlooker can spot groupings of stars that appear to form a picture, perhaps of a heroic human, a mythical creature, an animal, or an everyday…
