Mastodawn

Quixoticgeek

@vicgrinberg what does the night sky look like from space ? Getting above the atmosphere, with the naked eye how would it appear? Is the milky way still distinct ? All the photos I see tend to include earth.

#AskAnAstrophysicist

Dr. Victoria Grinberg May 13

@quixoticgeek it's going to be pretty much the same - the stars are very far away and our atmosphere very thin, so get to outside of it does not change much in what we see. What we get rid off are the effect of the atmosphere - the twinkling is because of atmospheric effects (similar effect to warm air above a hot street), the stars themselves don't twinkle! So the view is in a way clearer.

@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNote May 13

@vicgrinberg In this year of our lord 2026 with that monstrosity in office I did not need to know that not only will there be no shining city on the hill if we can’t get the votes to save democracy but the stars don’t actually twinkle. @quixoticgeek
🤣 🤣 🤣

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepheid_variable

Nick May 14

@Pineywoozle If it helps, some of them do pulsate (though I don't think this could ever be evident by eye).

Cepheid variable - Wikipedia

@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNote May 14

@internic @vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek
🤣 🤣 🤣 You’re a ray of sunshine on my dark day.

<10%6d ago

I've clearly been misinformed about the reason for twinkling stars - if it's just the atmosphere wouldn't the planets twinkle too?

@OneInterestingFact @quixoticgeek you were, sorry! Stars twinkle because they are so far away that they are essentially point like. Planets are much closer by and thus actual tiny circle. Here a classroom experiment to see the same result: https://demos.smu.ca/demos/astronomy/25-non-twinkling-planets

<10%6d ago

Hmm, ok. Yes, the explanation I was given about interstellar gas doesn't make sense either...

@OneInterestingFact @quixoticgeek sorry to hear that you got a wrong explanation (hope the person does not do this professionally! The twinkling question is one of the astro basics that keeps also coming up in outreach settings 😅 ) and glad I could clear things up.

<10%6d ago

This was a very long time ago - probably one of my parents but I can't be sure.

Juli 6d ago

Stars don’t twinkle? 🥺

@ohaijuli.bsky.social @quixoticgeek sorry 😅 see it this way: some of these stars may be someone else's Suns and those beings definitely would not want their Sun to twinkle...

@vicgrinberg @ohaijuli.bsky.social @quixoticgeek

Erdstern 6d ago

ooooh, I love that thought 🫠

Juli 5d ago

Okay, fine. Hope the far away space people appreciate their non-twinkly suns. ^^

Quixoticgeek 5d ago

@ohaijuli.bsky.social @vicgrinberg just like we appreciate that our sun doesn't twinkle on us over the course of the day. But it does appear to the far away space people like it twinkles. Assuming they have an atmosphere like earth...

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek I had the honor of having this explained to me for the first time by Dr. Nancy Grace Roman. And we were standing in front of the Hubble Space Telescope when she did it!

@Spacehistory @quixoticgeek oh wow 😍😍😍

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek There was nothing more fun than watching Dr. Roman muscle her way through the National Air And Space Museum in time to catch a bus. Just this tiny, little 90 year-old woman zipping past 7000 tourists to get where she was going.

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek Also fun was watching all of the young astrophysics Ph.D. candidates who were working as docents for the summer, running up to her and offering to walk her to the ladies room. She was like Mick Jagger in that museum!

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek And so you know I’m telling the truth: This is Dr. Roman with Dr. David DeVorkin, who at the time was the curator of telescopes at the Smithsonian. I’m behind the camera, producing the segment.

@Spacehistory @quixoticgeek 🤩 (I had the honor to meet Jocelyn Bell Burnell but never Roman!

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek So cool!

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek I lived near Dr. Roman, so throughout this project, I would go to her apartment in Maryland, and then drive her down to the Museum in DC. We had some great talks in the car.

@vicgrinberg @quixoticgeek Last one. Here’s part of her explanation.

Quixoticgeek 6d ago

@vicgrinberg can I ask a follow up question? What would the night sky look like on mars ? In all the photos I've seen the sky is a sort of muddy colour. I'm guessing thin atmosphere means less Rayleigh scattering? But at night, if you were stood on the martian surface would the view be similar to if you were somewhere like the Australian outback away from all the pollution?

Dr. Victoria Grinberg 5d ago

@quixoticgeek yes, the atmosphere is very thin, but I'm not sure how dusty it is - Mars does tend to have sandstorms and similar... Sorry, planetary atmospheres in the solar system are not my expertise!