State whether the following statement is true or false:The planets twinkle at night due to atmospheric refraction of light.

The planets twinkle at night due to atmospheric refraction of light.

It is a false statement.

Explanation

We know that stars twinkle at night but planets do not twinkle at all, because stars appear very very small to us as they are very very far away, due to this it is considered to be point sources of light. Therefore, due to the continuously changing atmosphere, the light coming from a point-sized star suffers variations due to which the star appears to be twinkling.

On the other hand, due to the constantly changing atmosphere, the light coming from the larger planet is not able to change (since they are very close to the earth) due to which the planet does not twinkle.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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