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Do Stars Move At Night?

Jeremy Williams Astronomy Scope Founder & Author
Written By: Jeremy Williams
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Observing the night sky comes with a vast number of peculiarities that can be hard to understand. A range of factors can play tricks on our view as many celestial objects become visible when the Sun goes down. One such instance is the stars which you likely have questions about relating to their movement. 

So, do stars move at night? Throughout the evening, many stars will seemingly move across the sky, but this isn’t because they’re actually traveling and changing their position every day. This is because of the Earth’s rotation, as it causes our view of the universe to change as the planet rotates on its axis.

Consider it an astronomical illusion, if you will. 

Let’s delve into it in greater detail before turning to how much change there is each evening in a stars percevied ‘location’.

Why Do The Stars Appear To Move At Night?

Stars appear to move at night due to the fact our planet, Earth, rotates on it’s axis. 

When you take a look at the night sky and view the stars for hours on end, you might notice that their position slightly changes over time.

On another note, this view can be different depending on where you are in the world.

If you’re closer to the North or South Pole, the stars seem to spin in place rather than travel across the sky. 

Once again, this phenomenon is based on your location and the rotation of the Earth. 

Nevertheless, the stars themselves aren’t moving across our sky, even if it looks like they are.

From another perspective, celestial objects aren’t always entirely stationary, and although many stars are moving, this isn’t something we’d pick up with the naked eye. 

Watching stars travel across the sky is an illusion of sorts, and this will be much more apparent the closer you are to the equator.

Moreover, because the Earth’s position moves around the Sun, our view of the stars is bound to change at some point and time. 

Stars that sit within 100 light years from our planet display a different pattern from time to time. 

Due to the parallax effect, some stars move back and forth instead of in a single direction, which is based on where the Earth is currently in its orbit around the Sun.

Although we might not be able to observe it by just looking up at the sky, many stars make small movements due to gravity. 

This happening is called proper motion, and some stars can be more affected by this occurrence than others. 

Barnard’s Star is known to have the highest proper motion, and it’s rare for any celestial object to remain entirely still.

If you have some time to pass, taking a few hours to gaze at the stars can offer an interesting experience. 

Telescopes can make a huge difference if you’re able to get a closer look, and as each hour passes, you should be able to see a slight shift in the position of the stars in the sky. 

Remember, if you were at the North or South Pole, the stars would just rotate above you instead of strafing across the sky.

The stars you see at night sit at varying distances from the Earth, which means some stars may appear to be moving faster than others. 

Overall, it can seem like a pretty slow event to watch the stars move across the sky, but if you were to look at a timelapse video that covered every hour of the night, you wouldn’t have an issue seeing the stars move.

Another way you can track their movements is by following constellations, as this can be easier to follow as they shift through the night. 

A good visual representation of how stars seem to move during the evening is by looking at time-lapsed photos, which capture their changing position at every moment. 

As mentioned above, stars seemingly move at various speeds and distances due to their position in the universe, and I’m going to explore that more down below.

Read more: Why Do Stars Appear To Move Across The Sky?

How Much Do Stars Move At Night?

Going back to what’s known as proper motion, each star has its own motion through space as they’re moving around the center of its galaxy. It should also be noted that some stars don’t belong to a galaxy and may be less affected by gravity. When you look at it from Earth’s rotation, the stars move 15 degrees per hour. 

To give you a reference as to how their movements are calculated, Bernard’s Star moves 10.3 seconds of arc every year. 

For a better idea of how to gauge that, this means that it takes roughly 180 years for it to move across the diameter of the full moon.

Seeing as this is a substantial timeframe, the proper motion of Bernard’s Star and many others like it is pretty small compared to our time here on Earth.

Even if the stars move across the sky at roughly 15 degrees per hour, how their position looks to the naked eye will look different based on your location. 

Although this information is pretty clear-cut, some stars may seem to be moving faster only because of their distance from the Earth. 

Those that are closer to our planet are not only easier to see, but it’ll look like they’re moving faster as well.

Keep in mind that when you go star gazing, you won’t immediately be able to tell that their position is seemingly moving. 

This is a process that takes hours to see any real change, which is why time-lapsed photos and videos are so helpful. 

Overall, it’s a beautiful sight to be seen, and it can still be enjoyed even if you’re closer to the South or North Pole, as it offers its own unique viewing experience.

Without the knowledge that’s provided in this article, many people would believe that the stars are actually moving their position across the sky. 

When you take into account that the Earth is constantly in rotation, it starts to make sense why our view of the sky, night and day, changes with each passing hour. 

Aside from the star’s slow shift due to gravity, they offer the illusion of movement because our planet is always spinning on its axis and rotating around the Sun.

How Do The Stars Move?

How we see the stars move is based on the rotation of the Earth, but their actual movement throughout the universe is due to the gravitational forces of their respective galaxies. It’s thought that the center of our galaxy contains a supermassive black hole which is the cause of the gravity that moves each star’s position. 

This process takes quite a while, and each star’s location in the galaxy affects how we see them move from here on Earth.

The stars that scatter our night sky could potentially look much different, hundreds to thousands of years from now.

For the most part, our sky will look relatively the same throughout our lifetime.

Even if our existence on Earth seems like a long timeframe, it’s nothing in comparison to the happenings within our universe and beyond.

Each star’s proper motion is different from the next, with some moving faster than others based on their position in a galaxy.

Bernard’s Star is the fastest moving star that’s viewable from Earth because it’s only six light years away, whereas one of the farthest stars known to our records, named Earendel, is 28 billion light years away.

That’s a huge difference and sheds light on why one star may seem faster than another.

When the Sun goes down, and you look up at the sky, you could potentially see hundreds, if not thousands, of stars clustered together. From that point of view, it looks like they’re all crammed close together, but that’s not the case.

Our galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, and all of the stars in it sit at various distances from our planet.

When the stars strafe across the sky at night, it may look like they’re moving in unison to some degree, but that’s only because it’s such a vast amount of space to cover.

Remember, the stars themselves aren’t moving across the sky; the Earth’s rotation just makes it seem that way, and the closer the star, the more visible its “movement” becomes.

Stars aren’t eternal either, and although they last roughly 10 billion years, new formations and supernova events are bound to happen. In theory, these happenings alone could change how our night sky looks from Earth as time progresses.

Lastly

With a blend of factors such as gravitational forces, supernovas, and where you’re stargazing on Earth, how stars appear at night might look different from one person to the next.

Nevertheless, as we have discovered, the perceived movements the stars are making are simply due to the Earth’s axis rotation and orbit around the Sun.

Yet it shouldn’t be disregarded that it’s possible for a star to move over a very long period of time thanks to a gravitational pull.

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