I'm trying to understand QM and many stuff gets in conflict in my head. Black body radiation means a hot object produces light in certain frequencies. Meaning it's losing energy.
Yet they talk about Thermal Equilibrium, which means the temperature of the object is constant. But can it? if it's losing energy how can an object have constant temperature.
Even in space an hot object would lose energy by producing photons, right? No?
Heat is energy transfer due solely to a temperature difference between an object and its surroundings. An object reaches thermal equilibrium (no longer transfers heat) with its surroundings when the temperature of the object equals the temperature of the surroundings. This applies regardless of the heat transfer mechanism (conduction, convection, or in your case radiation)
A hot object in the vacuum of space transfers heat to its surroundings (or the surroundings transfers heat to it) by thermal radiation. This continues until the temperature of the object equals the temperature of its surroundings. Then the temperature of the object becomes constant. Theoretically, the minimum temperature the object will reach will be that of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) which is a few degrees Kelvin.
Hope this helps.
