• Question: How can you tell the difference between a star and a planet in the sky?

    Asked by Tanko to Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 17 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Stars emit light- so they glow/shine.

      Planets doesn’t give off light of their own; they either reflect light, which we see if they are close, enough like the Moon. Or they block light, if they pass in front of their star, which we can measure to work out how big they are.

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 19 Jun 2016:

      When you look up at the night sky, check if it twinkles. Twinkle = star. No twinkle (and for certain planets a bit of colour) = planet.

      There’s an awesome app called Sky Map by google that you can check your observation!

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