this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not exactly. Stars twinkle; planets don't. That's the easiest way to tell if you're looking at a star (other than our own of course) or a planet reflecting light.

[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Might depend on language also. Being a weeb, my example is going to be Japanese, where Hoshi(星) can mean both star and planet.

Looking in wiktionary, sometimes this can be translated more to "heavenly body" but the source seems to have been about twinkling things in the sky. Still, I've definitely heard what would translate to "this star" being used for the planet the speaker lives on.

Edit: also, the first time I spotted Jupiter with my telescope I thought it was a bright star with 2 dimmer stars around it. I changed my zoom, took pictures, and zoomed in before I realized it was Jupiter and it's largest two moons. People with worse tech wouldn't have thought " oh, that one doesn't twinkle".