R
Rich Grise
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Other blackbody radiators, normalized by peak output.
As I recall, they do. The sun emits very little microwave radiation, while
the cosmic background temperature gives off copious amounts.
(I suppose it might be possible to place microwave detectors on the sun
(nevermind the physical difficulty of diodes operating at 7000K, but that's
just an engineering problem), collecting the few picowatts of CBR that pass
along, relaying that power back to a cold sink which thereby radiates more
microwave radiation. Likewise, the cold sink transforms the visible
radiation from the detector into additional microwave radiation.
It's an interesting thought, but I'm sure that, if I ran the numbers, I'd
discover that it doesn't come out over unity, which is how it ought to be,
after all.)
Infrared perhaps, but not far IR or microwave.
Consider: if this were true, then celestial x-ray and gamma sources would be
visible on telescopes (assuming there is a direct line of sight, which for
energetic radiation, need not be). Many radio and x-ray sources are only
visible due to visible-spectrum matter, as I recall.
Not that I'm qualified here, but my gut is telling me that if you pointed
a radiotelescope at the sun, its input would probably be overloaded.
I do wonder what it would sound like, however. ;-)
Cheers!
Rich