(8) Unseen Passage

The real way to distinguish a star from a planet is to see whether it twinkles or not. Stars twinkle; planets don't. Planets shine only because they get the light of the sun. The light we see coming from planets and the moon is the sunshine on their surface. Stars are like the sun. They shine because they are boiling and burning. The sun itself is a star. It looks bigger than other stars because it is much nearer. We see it as a great ball of fire in the sky. We think the earth is vast. But although it seems so big, it is tiny compared to other things in the solar system; it is a speck of dust. The sun is millions of miles away, and other stars are even further away. That is why they look so small to us.

Choose the correct option to answer each question.

How can we distinguish a star from a planet?