Question

Explain why the planets do not twinkle.

Answer 1

Twinkling occurs because the apparent position of a heavenly body is not fixed because the light through them is refracted through the atmosphere. Planets appear larger to human eyes as compared to stars because they are closer. As the angle subtended by the planets at the human eye is more, the shift in their position(as compared to stars) is smaller. Since, the shift is smaller, they do not twinkle.