Aberration of light

Okay kiddo, let's talk about aberration of light. You know how when you look through a straw, things that are far away look a bit smaller than they actually are? That's because the light from those far away things has to travel through a narrower space (the straw) to get to your eyes, so it bends a bit and makes everything look a bit smaller.

Well, the same thing happens with light from stars that are really far away. As the Earth moves around the Sun, it's like we're looking through a big straw that's always moving. So the light from those far away stars has to travel through the "straw" created by the Earth's movement, and that makes it bend a bit too.

This bending of light is called aberration, and it can make the positions of the stars look a tiny bit different than they actually are. Scientists take this into account when they're trying to measure the positions of stars accurately. It may be a small effect, but even tiny changes in the position of a star can help scientists learn more about how the universe works!