Why does Jupiter appear to emit a steady light instead of twinkling like stars?
Answer
It appears as a tiny disk rather than a point, which provides more stable light.
Stars are so distant that they appear as mere pinpoints of light, making their illumination highly susceptible to atmospheric distortion. As air currents move across the line of sight, starlight bends and refracts, causing it to twinkle. In contrast, planets are much closer and appear as tiny disks. Although the naked eye may not resolve the disk shape, the light collected from a disk is inherently more stable than the light from a point, which results in the steady, constant glow characteristic of Jupiter.
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