On Earth heat rises. But what happens to heat in space? The heat from our rockets/spacecraft has to go somewhere. In space there is no up or down.
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In: Physics
Heat is dispersed via infrared radiation in space, since there are no atoms to actually disperse the thermal energy to, heat loss in space is actually incredibly slow. It would take 12-26 hours to get to a point where the lack of heat would kill you due to this. In space rockets they actually use heat transfer units that function similarly to cars. In cars heat is transferred from the radiator which cools the engine to the air which disperses the heat. In a rocket since you cant release thermal energy to outside the rocket, there are coolant tanks that the thermal energy is transferred to that is then vented out into space.
The heat rise because the atoms wiggle more, pushing each other away, making the material less dense. Buoyancy the less dense air will rise.
In space there isn’t parlicule so heat like that doesn’t move around. In empty space there is barely any heat, because there is barely any particule. If the heat is on an object like an asteroid, an astronaut, etc. Then it will stay there, since there is no particule in emtpy space to absorb that heat.
The only way heat can travel through empty space is by radiation. Either from something that emit it, or by thermal radiation. AKA matter ”leak” some of their heat through radiation, the higher the temperature the higher the wavelenght. This is why we can see people with an infrared camera, their atoms leak heat in the infrared. But your oven heating elment is hotter and leak in reddish color, a fire is hotter and leak in yellow/orange, etc.
It disperses. Know how when you shine a flashlight, the beam spreads out? Same thing.
And the volume of space is basically infinite. The heat from an individual rocket launch would be a drop in the galactic bucket.
Heat is just particles jiggling around and storing energy, in space, there is no particles to jiggle
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