Twinkelle: Why Stars Twinkle
Cosmology & the Sky arc, page 165 of 193. Back to The Pixelated Physics Universe
Who they are
Twinkelle has one line, and says it often: “Point sources twinkle. extended ones cope.”
Twinkelle is a character of the Cosmology & the Sky arc: drawn in pixels, ruled by one piece of real physics, and never allowed to break it.
The physics
Stars scintillate but planets twinkle less because their angular size averages the fluctuations.
$$ \begin{gathered} \sigma_I^{2} = \frac{\langle I^{2} \rangle}{\langle I \rangle^{2}} - 1 \end{gathered} $$
| Symbol | Meaning | SI unit |
|---|---|---|
| $\sigma_I^{2}$ | scintillation index | — |
| $I$ | received intensity | W/m^2 |
Sources
Crossovers
Twinkelle meets Turbulorn (Astronomical Seeing). Turbulorn's turbulence makes Twinkelle's point-like stars scintillate. Planets twinkle less because their larger angular size averages the fluctuations.
Twinkelle meets Magnidra (Magnitude Scale). Twinkelle's twinkling makes brightness flicker. Magnidra measures that brightness on a logarithmic scale, where 5 magnitudes means a factor of 100 in flux.
Wear the lore
Concept keywords: Why Stars Twinkle, Twinkelle, Cosmology & the Sky, physics lore, Pixelated Physics