3 ms·
There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers - so here goes: Hot things emit light. The wavelength(s) of light a substance emits depends on the temperature o
by danparsonson 3y ago
There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers - so here goes:
Hot things emit light. The wavelength(s) of light a substance emits depends on the temperature of that substance - cooler things emit longer (redder) wavelengths, hotter things are bluer. If the substance is cool enough, the light emitted will be mostly or wholly infra-red, therefore invisible to the naked eye but still detectable. The top of a flame is like that - the gas is still hot but no longer glowing visibly as it cools. Therefore the answer to your question depends on how hot the plasma is, but a confounding factor is that the hoovering object would create friction in the incoming material, thereby heating it up. I think the corona of a star glows with its own light (not just light emitted by the core), so I expect therefore that you would see a lot of light overall, especially nearer to whatever is doing the vacuuming.
- sph 3y agoThanks for the great answer! I didn't think of friction. We recently got a picture of our first blackhole, time to snap a picture of a star or a blackhole slurping another star. Would be quite a sight. My Google-fu only returns artists renditions.
- danparsonson 3y agoWhat I wouldn't give to see such a thing :-)