STARS!!! wat are they??

I was on the plane back to Singapore a few hours ago. I took advantage of the empty seats at the last row, taking the window seat. The plane ride was quite or shld i say super boring. But as I looked out of the window from the plane, I saw this 'sky of stars'. I presume that they were the lights of the ships and boats on the sea (not too sure which sea was it). They were not really clustered tgt, neither were they too far apart. They just simply looked like the stars in the sky, flickering. It makes mi wonder wat are stars actually. Looking down from the top, the stars I see are lights of the boats. Looking up from the bottom, I see the stars that are known to me as stars. Did anyone ever when to see if stars are dust particles floating/ smaller planets or rocks orbiting around the planets? They could actually be other things, couldn't they?

This is a mystery in itself. :):) But seriously, those ship lights looked like stars but im not disillusion as i noe stars can never be found beneath the planes. Correct mi if im wrong!