Abstract
The Universe is far from thermal equilibrium: its temperature is ≲ 3 K whereas its visible constituents (stars, galaxies) often have surface temperatures near 104K. Cosmic clouds can be colder than 10 K in their cores; γ-ray bursts signal local temperatures near 1010K. How fast do these temperatures change? On large spatial scales, heat conduction is unable to compete with heat radiation. This chapter is therefore primarily devoted to radiative heat exchange.
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Kundt, W. (2001). Thermal Processes. In: Astrophysics. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04347-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04347-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-04349-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04347-9
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