Question

It is said that planets are closer than the stars thrn why aren't we able to see the planets instead of stars at night?

Answer 1

Hi,

Planets are much closer to the earth and are seen as extended sources. So, a planet may be considered as a collection of a large number of point-sized light sources. Although light coming from individual point-sized sources flickers but the total amount of light entering our eye from all the individual point-sized sources average out to be constant. Thereby, planets appear equally bright and there is no twinkling of planets.