the.com/blackbody radiation

everything glows if you're hot enoughthe color just tells on your temperature.

means the light emitted by any object purely because it has heat, with a spectrum that depends only on temperature, not material.

from coined from the theoretical blackbody, an idealized object that absorbs all light hitting it and re-emits it perfectly based on heat alone; physicists in the 1800s built ovens with tiny holes to approximate one and got very confused by what they measured.

for instance

cosmic microwave background2.7 kelvin afterglow of the big bang, measured by cobe in 1990

tungsten filament bulbglows yellow-white near 2700 kelvin, classic incandescent light

the sunsurface at 5778 kelvin, peaks in visible yellow-green light

forged steelblacksmiths judge heat by color, cherry red near 800 celsius

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