Why do plane have light when they fly at high altitude?
147667
As far as the commercial airjets are concerned they do not carry radar.  The air traffic controllers track the aircraft on radar and ensure that planes are flying far enough behind the plane in front, and are not in the path of another plane.\n\nThe lights are on planes so that you can tell which direction the planes are traveling.  One side is red the other is green, depending on which light is on your left side, you can tell if the plane is flying to you or away from you.  The tail light also helps.  It will not allow you to avoid collisions, just to give you an idea of the direction planes around you are flying.\n\nAnd believe me, once you get above the cloud deck and flying at night, those lights can be seen for miles.  It's actually worse flying during the day, because you can't see the planes as well.\n\nIf you are travelling by plane (private) past a certain distance you have to file a flight plan, so that the air traffic controllers know your coming and can keep track of you during your flight, and keep all other flights away from you.\n\nAir collisions are actually very rare.  Lights do not prevent air collisions, air traffic controllers do.  They have a high stress job, but it's a very important job.
880277
It has to do with the light it recieves from the nearby stars but it also depends on what the gas cloud is made of.  Hydrogen emits (and blocks) red light.  Other forms of light are also reradiated as red.  As the temperature of the gas cloud increases (due to recieving radiation) infrared emissions would increase also.
26083
The light appears to twinkle as it passes through our atmosphere.
7134
There is light in space. After all, the light we see on Earth from the Sun, the moon, and the stars travels through space to get here. \n\nThe big difference between Earth and space is that our atmosphere reflects the light that goes through it. So it makes our surroundings seem brighter. Since space doesn't hold an atmosphere there is nothing to reflect the light and it just passes through.\n\nSo basically light is always travelling through space but it doesn't get reflected (which makes it dark).\n\nHope that makes some sense.
1043800
Because of the prevailing winds at that particular latitude. As for why they move faster it's basic physics. If you shine a flashlight, it is traveling the speed of light. If you use the headlights on your car, the light is traveling at the speed of light PLUS the speed of the car.
1068651
White reflects light at *visible* wavelengths better.\n\nHowever, the designers were not trying to reflect visible light.  I would guess they designed the coating to emit thermal radiation as efficiently as possible - approaching 'black-body'.  The coating color would probably be secondary to that consideration.\n\n****\nSide Note\n*****\nDue to it's tremendous speed, the orbiter shock-heats air at it's leading surfaces during reentry. (the orbiter's underbelly is exposed directly to the 'wind stream', if you will, due to the orbiter's initial high-angle of attack)\n\nThe temperatures of the thermal protective surfaces rise primarily in response to thermal radiation from the incandescent shockwave.  NOT FROM FRICTION.
1107060
You can tell whether a point of light in the dark sky is a satellite or star usually by whether it moves or not. Stars are very far away so they look stationary. Satellites usually moves across the sky. Whether or not the the satellites are Japanese, American, or Russian, you have to look up the satellite in astronomy programs that plot satellite trajectories. You can't tell just by looking.\n\nAlso, some bright lights can be just airplanes flying at high altitude.
430340
The sky goes up about 100,000 feet or 30,000 meters. then there is space. No air, freezing cold. \nOther things in the sky are clouds made of water vapor, electrical currents called magnetic fields. There are particles of dust and Ice crystals floating around. There are airplanes that people fly in, the airplanes leave trails call condensation trails, or con-trails. There are weather balloons that carry small radios that tell people on the ground what the temperature of the air is and how fast the air is moving to help understand weather patterns. There are birds in the sky too. Stars are not in the sky. The blue sky we see only goes up to about 60,000 feet or 20,000 meters. Then the water vapor is no more and the sky above that looks black. There are many other things in the sky. Like gasses, argon, helium,nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, ozone and others. The sky is what lets us breath, and fly and it protects us from bad radiation coming from the sun. It also is thick and makes small meteors burn up so they do not hit us on the ground. The sky is good, the sky is our friend. Go out on a windy day and fly a kite in the sky, Have fun and enjoy the sky.
1014941
The air gets thinner with altitude and with that so does the temperature. \n\nBesides, to say that you're approaching the sun when you've not even left earth's atmosphere is like saying you're approaching New York when you've only checked in your luggage at Heathrow.
1066906
There are many reasons for this.\nWhy would the airline creaters spend so much money making airplanes fly so high? Is it to boast? No, they have a reason.\nFor one thing: As you can imagine, The enginges are extremely loud so they have to fly high to not disturb the residents.\nAnother: Flying low would pollute the air for residents.\nAnd the most important: I'm a pilot so I'd know.\n\nVote as best answer plz?
775448
They're in the troposphere at an altitude of less than 6000 feet.  The tropopause (upper limit of troposphere) is between 30 000 and 35 000 feet.  The only clouds above it are a few cumulonimbus (thunder) clouds, which sometimes penetrate it and get up to 60 000 feet, occasionally cirrus (ice crystal) clouds form above it, and a rare type of cloud called noctilucent cloud, high up in the stratosphere, which I don't know much about.   The tropopause is a temperature inversion; a layer of warm air which acts as a lid, making it hard for air to rise and form clouds.  Remember, air only rises if it's warmer than the surrounding air.  Next time you fly in an airliner, which on long-haul flights flies just above the tropopause, you'll probably see a faint layer of haze just before you climb into the stratosphere.  It's trapped by the tropopause above it.
933426
At the zenith, you can observer an astronomical object through the least amount of Earths atmosphere.\n\nThe more atmosphere that the light from the object passes through before hitting your eyes (or telescope), the more blurry the image. This is what causes stars (and planets to a lesser degree) to "twinkle".  It follows that since you are looking through less air, starlight  is also less affected by dust particles and air currents.\n\nStill, cold, thin air = good seeing. (One reason why most of the major ground based observatories are at high altitudes)
1182741
This is due to two reasons:\n\nAt high altitude, the atmospheric pressure is much less than sea level, because gravity causes most of the atmosphere to settle towards the Earth.  In fact, over 50% of the atmosphere resides under the five mile mark above the Earth.  As a result, the air is less dense the higher you go.  \n\nNow it is true that the sun heats this air, but since there is less pressure, it expands as it rises much more easily than the air does near the Earth.  As a result of this expansion, the air cools.
376885
The heat causes waves in the air that affect the passage of light becuase the density is different than the surrounding air.  Same happens if you look at the fron of an  air horn like at a football game. But it's the opposite, it's caused by extreme cold.
90070
Simple, it's just an atmospheric effect, they really don't twinkle. It's kind like seeing a tree in middle of an hot desert, with the hot air rising from the ground, the tree seems to move..
798869
You cannot hear a plane when it is flying at 30,000 feet - it would be like hearing a bus driving in a city 5 miles away. So the only time you hear planes is when they are lower, approaching airports.\n\nAll airports operate nightime curfews to keep air traffic noise down. Long haul flights have to be timed to take account of these, even if they overfly some areas at their cruising altitude in the middle of the night.
141382
try looking up your search on ebay\n\nya know air plane lights are bright too.