From our vantage point here on Earth, stars twinkle because our atmosphere warps light passing through it. When astronomers look through telescopes orbiting above Earth’s atmosphere, like Hubble and JWST, starlight is steady and unwavering. But if we could travel into space with a telescope even more sensitive than JWST, we would see the stars twinkling very faintly. If we could zoom in even farther, we would see waves rippling the star’s fiery surface, creating those faint, subtle shifts in its light.
