<p>Stars are, to all intents, infinitely far away and hence present themselves as points - thus the small changes in the atmosphere's refractive index caused by different patches of density and temperature of air make them appear to twinkle.</p>

<p>Planets, on the other hand, are relatively close by and (with the exception of the Moon and the Sun itself) whilst we cannot resolve any solar system body into a disk with the naked eye, they are still larger than (most) variations in the atmosphere, hence they don't appear to twinkle or the twinkling is much reduced.</p>

<p>The evidence suggests you saw a planet, quite likely Jupiter or Saturn.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T21:57:20.333Z
2017-06-12T21:57:20.333Z
adrianmcmenamin
<p>I looked outside my window one night, and the moon was shining brightly, and it wasn't a full moon. But thats not the point. Really close to it was something that looked liked a star. It was really bright, and it gave off a white light, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized that it wasn't flickering or twinkling the way stars do. A few minutes later, I looked at it again, and this time it was smaller, less bright, and farther away from the moon. I know its not a satalite because I've seen those before and they move faster, and they give off the same amount of light all the time. If anyone has any idea what this thing could be, please tell me, because I really want to know.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-04T08:19:14.170Z
Could have been Jupiter. People often mistaken it wirh stars.
sprinter252
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-04T09:08:21.247Z
The sky is big, and changes all the time, so you need to give more information, such as the time (date and approximate  time) and place of your observation.
Dr Chuck
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-04T16:03:10.593Z
FWIW, Jupiter's quite close to the Moon tonight.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-05T17:59:25.287Z
Jupiter had a conjunction with the moon the other night-- it doesn't twinkle, and the conjunction was close enough that the change in distance later in the night was noticeable.
antlersoft
<star>
I see a non flickering star. How is this possible?
Lisa Sinareva
# I see a non flickering star. How is this possible?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-04)

I looked outside my window one night, and the moon was shining brightly, and it wasn't a full moon. But thats not the point. Really close to it was something that looked liked a star. It was really bright, and it gave off a white light, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized that it wasn't flickering or twinkling the way stars do. A few minutes later, I looked at it again, and this time it was smaller, less bright, and farther away from the moon. I know its not a satalite because I've seen those before and they move faster, and they give off the same amount of light all the time. If anyone has any idea what this thing could be, please tell me, because I really want to know.

**Tags:** star
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could have been Jupiter. People often mistaken it wirh stars.  
> **username_2**: The sky is big, and changes all the time, so you need to give more information, such as the time (date and approximate  time) and place of your observation.  
> **username_3**: FWIW, Jupiter's quite close to the Moon tonight.  
> **username_4**: Jupiter had a conjunction with the moon the other night-- it doesn't twinkle, and the conjunction was close enough that the change in distance later in the night was noticeable.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2017-06-12. Score: 1

Stars are, to all intents, infinitely far away and hence present themselves as points - thus the small changes in the atmosphere's refractive index caused by different patches of density and temperature of air make them appear to twinkle.

Planets, on the other hand, are relatively close by and (with the exception of the Moon and the Sun itself) whilst we cannot resolve any solar system body into a disk with the naked eye, they are still larger than (most) variations in the atmosphere, hence they don't appear to twinkle or the twinkling is much reduced.

The evidence suggests you saw a planet, quite likely Jupiter or Saturn.


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