How Do Stars Move Across the Universe and Why Do Stars Move Across the Sky At Night?

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Karen Hill

Traditionally, people have thought of the stars as immovable and permanent, but they do move.

We know the stars move because we know that the universe is expanding.

But Earth is also moving in the expanding universe, so the movement of the stars is imperceptible, you can’t see it.

“Wait a minute,” you might say. “I can see the stars move across the sky every night. They rise in the east and set in the west, just like the Sun.”

Just like the Sun, however, the stars only seem to move because Earth is rotating on its axis.

We are the ones who are moving relative to the stars.

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