Twinkle Twinkle little star(actually not so little!!!)

We are all very familiar with this poem-

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,

How i wonder what you are".

But have you ever really tried to wonder what they really are and what is the reason behind their twinkle?If not here's what it means.

Firstly know that it is just an effect and not some true phenomena that really occurs.There are lots of factors that are responsible for its twinkling effect.The first factor is 'The Distance'.Understand that the distance between earth and the stars are of 100's and 1000's of light years(means that light from that star takes 100 years to reach to the earth).Between this distance are many other celestial bodies.So a particle of light(photon) has to really struggle to reach earth.And when it finally reaches our earth,it enters into our atmosphere where it interacts with many gas particles.Well here's the time for me to introduce you'll to a phenomena which light undergoes-Refraction.Now many of you must know this phenomena and a similar phenomena known as Reflection but...So this is what happens,when the light travels from a rarer(Space Time) to denser(earth's atmosphere)it changes its path or bends or refract form it's own path.This process continues for every photon and we see a twinkling effect.

Now some of you may think about our Sun,after all it is a star too...Well you are right this happens with our sun too.The consequence of refraction on our Sun can be seen at early mornings or late evenings.Due to refraction their is 2 minute early and delay in the sunrise or sunset.This means that we are able to see Sun 2 minutes before the actual sunrise.Cool huh???

After reading this article some of you may realize that between 2nd paragraph we have used a term'bending of light!!!'.Wait WHAAAT???BENDING!Yes light does bend but thats a topic for some other time.Thanks for Reading.....