is a star seen by da human eye in space a distant sun or a meteor or something? uh?
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What you see outside at night is a mixture of these:\nStars (like the sun)\nPlanets\nSattelites\nGalaxies
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The brightest star as seen from the Earth is Sirius, not the sun, whose scientific name is Helios, nor the North Star, whose name is Polaris.  Sirius is located in the constellation Canis Major.  It is also known as the Dog Star.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
9670
You're probably seeing Venus and not a star. It usually rises or sets within hours of the Sun. If it doesn't "twinkle" it's a planet. Would be easier to tell you if you could report your latitude, time zone and time of observation aswell.
186531
There are more than a hundred-odd 'sun's in our skies, of which our Sun [one of the smallest among these 'sun's] is the closest to us !\nAs the Earth and other planets are in constant orbit around our Sun, it obviously appears to be in the sky ! \n...Incidentally, what we commonly call our 'sky' is also a mere 'mirage', or optical illusion : It only consists of various 'atmospheric' gases [and moisture-laden clouds that float in them], plus an upper ozone-layer - all of which the light rays from the Sun illuminate. \nThis illumination causes us to imagine that there is a blanket-like bluish 'sky' above us ! As the Sun also seems to be 'up there', we say in non-technical words that the 'Sun is in the sky' !
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Bigger that what? \n\nRemember, these planets are still a long ways away. \n\nAnd the morning star/evening star, which is Venus, sometimes called Lucifer or Hesperides or Phosphorus or Hesperus (The identification of morning star with evening star, or Phosphorus=Hesperus was famously realized by Pythagoras) is very large and bright in the sky sometimes. \n\nMercury is a bit harder to see because it is so small, and so close to the sun.
480373
stars, planets, comets, meteors
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You've almost answered your own question:  Stars are "stationary" sources of energy (nuclear) and give off light.  Planets do not and they orbit stars.
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If you want to know the names of celestial objects, you need to be familiar with landmarks in the celestial sphere, such as Polaris, the Big Dipper, Orion, etc. These are easy to find constellations and stars that provide guides to harder to find objects. Get a star gazing guide, or the excellent Starry Night Pro software: http://www.starrynight.com/ .\nIf you mean how to tell satellites from planets and stars, note that objects near Earth do not scintillate (twinkle) like stars. Most satellites move very fast, and are obviously moving too fast for the Earth's rotation to be the only cause. Planets are extremely bright compared to stars and do not scintillate.\nDon't expect to see nebulas and other faraway objects without a (good, not department store style) telescope or a strong pair of binoculars. The only galaxy you can see with the naked eye is our own, the Milky Way, and at that only in non-light polluted areas. I have never seen the Milky Way from NYC, but from the equator, it's a beautiful sight (it's a milky white band across the sky).
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when the light from the stars enter the earth's atmosphere, the light wave bends and refracted until it reach our eyes. So because it is refracted, when we look at it, it seems to be twinkling.
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If stars twinkle due to the atmosphere, then why the planets and moon do not twinkle?\n\nTwinkle, twinkle, little star, how, I wonder, what you are?\n\nOn a clear night only about 2000 stars are visible to the naked eye.\n\nThe nearest star, Centauri, is at a distance of 4.3 light years; that is at a distance of about 2, 60,000 times the distance of the sun.\n\nEven this nearest star appears to be a point from earth.\n\nTherefore, a point image is formed in the retina our eye, that is they fall on very few rods of our eye. \n\nEven a sight turn of eye ball will shift the image position in the retina. This causes the twinkling effect of stars.\n\nBut if we view a star continuously we can’t feel the twinkling effect. \n\nHowever, some stars vary their brightness periodically; they are long period variables and short period variables. Their period varies from a week to months.\n\nHence they are not the cause for twinkling.
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Greetings,\n\nIt was probably Sirius the Dog Star.  One of the closer stars to us and when it twinkles it appears red, blue, green, and is really big for a star.\n\nIt was NOT a planet, as planets don't twinkle.  Jupiter is bright, but it's not very high up in the sky at 8:00 pm.  Venus is currently only up in the morning.  Saturn is a dim yellowish star in Gemini.  Mars is a dim orange star between Taurus and the Pleides.\n\nSo to sum up, it was most likely Sirius.\n\nYou can use the link provided for a interactive star chart that is easy to read and use.  Simply plug in your city and state and the time of day/night you want to see and most of the visible stars will show up along with the planets, comets, and a few other deep space objects.\n\n-matt
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The stars themselves don't.  It is just an illusion.  The miles of air in our atmosphere between our eyes and the star changes in temperature and humidity which makes the star look like it is flickering when it really glows at a constant rate.
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We do this all the time today.  We have many times looked into the heart of a planetary nebula (leftover from the death of a low mass star) or a supernova remnant (leftover from the death of a high mass star) to see the small compact objects left over after the star has died.\n\nIn the case of a low mass stars we see many white dwarf stars, and for the high mass case we see neutron stars.  A good example is the pulsar we have seen in the Crab nebula, or the white dwarf at the heart of the Ring nebula.
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what r u people talking about. you can still see stars when you get hit, I have a personal experience although it was more like little squares of light.
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Twinkle twinkle little star\n\nThere aren't many nursery rhymes about astronomy. But 'twinkle twinkle little star' makes a useful point. We can tell which lights in the night sky are stars because they appear to twinkle. Planets, on the other hand, don't, they shine steadily in the sky.\n\nStars twinkle because they are very far away, and so appear as tiny points of light in our night sky. Some of this light is absorbed by moving air in the Earth's atmosphere, making the star appear to sparkle.\n\nPlanets, like Saturn or Jupiter, don't sparkle. This is because they are a lot closer to the Earth and so they look bigger in our sky than stars.\n\n\nThe Pistol Star is the brightest in the known Universe\n\nRather than being points of light, planets are small discs. As their light is more spread out, even if some of it is absorbed by our atmosphere, some of the light still filters through, so the planet doesn't twinkle. This means that you can tell the difference between a planet and a star without even needing a telescope, just by seeing if it twinkles!\n\nWeighing a star:\n\nAs for 'wondering what they are', starlight also contains an extraordinary amount of information that can answer that very question.\n\nWeighing a star isn't as difficult as it sounds as you don't need an enormous set of cosmic scales, just one equation. The more massive a star is, the more energy it gives off. So first of all, astronomers measure the star's 'luminosity', the rate at which it emits energy. Then they can work out its mass.\n\nMeasuring a star's temperature:\n\nOnce the mass of the star is known, you can calculate the temperature inside its burning core. Stars perform a delicate balancing act between gas pressure pushing outwards and gravity pulling inwards. Mathematical equations can be used to map this. Then by measuring the size and mass of the star, astronomers can calculate the temperature of the core.\n\n\nWhat's inside a star?\n\nEven more incredibly, just by looking at starlight astronomers can discover what a star is made from.\n\nThe light that we see is just one kind of radiation known as 'visible light'. Other kinds include X-rays, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves and infrared. Different stars give out varying amounts of these signals, known as their 'spectrum'.\n\nWhen measured, the spectrum appears as a series of bright and dark lines positioned at specific points or 'frequencies'. This is the blueprint of a star and provides a wealth of information about what is happening inside.\n\nAs elements are heated inside the star, they absorb and emit energy, creating a 'blip' in the star's spectrum. So the position and strength of these lines reveal what elements are inside the star. Stars are classified into 'spectral types' according to the shape of this spectrum.\n\nLooking back in time:\n\nAlthough time travel isn't physically possible yet, we can see back in time just by looking out into space.\n\nLight from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. So we are seeing what the Sun looked like 8 minutes ago. Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour, lags behind by 4.3 years. So, the further we look out into space, the further we are looking into the past.\n\nThe distance that light travels in a year is called a 'light year'. The furthest that astronomers have ever seen are about 12 billion light years away, from a time just after the Big Bang, when the Universe was just a baby.\n\nI hope this helps....\n\nDon
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The pictures taken in space are (usually) taken through a very small aprature and have a very short depth of field.  That means they're not focusing on the background at all.  Because of this, the light of the stars is often too dim to be sceen by the camera, especially when there's a bright object in frame. (The Earth, a lit astronaut, space shuttle, ect.)\n\nI can't respond again, so I'm editing this one.\n\nTo the girl below me, I think your answer is well incorrect.  The distance from Earth to state is 60,000 miles.  The stars are light years away.  From Earth to near space is such a small distance coparitively is like saying that standing in New York, you'll be able to see a movie screen in San Fransico easier if you jump up and down.
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Almost any light can be seen from space. It just depends on what kind of telescope you have.\n-Brandon Everett Spurgeon