Movatterモバイル変換

Explanation:This is what a star really looks like from the surface of the Earth. To the best thehuman eye can see, stars are so far away they appearthe same as would infinitesimal points of light. TheEarth's atmosphere, however, is clumpy, so that different air pockets produce different images of a single point-like star. Because the atmosphere is alwayswindy and changing, the number and position ofimages is always changing, with the result that stars appear totwinkle. In reality, theabove time-lapse sequence occurs ten times faster. Close inspection will reveal asingle small image of the star that is repeated over and over. This image is called aspeckle and its size is again not really infinitesimal, but determined bystrange quantum effects that involve the finite size of the telescope. Recent work inadaptive optics ("rubber mirrors") have madespectacular advances in reducing this atmospheric blurring.Betelgeuse is the star twinkling above, and in space, above the Earth's atmosphere, it really looks likethis.