Abstract
Temperatures of astronomical objects range from almost absolute zero to millions of degrees. Temperature can be defined in a variety of ways, and its numerical value depends on the specific definition used. The temperature is welldefined only in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Since most astrophysical objects are not in equilibrium, they cannot be assigned a unique temperature. For many purposes it is still useful to describe phenomena in terms of a temperature, but its value will then depend on how it is defined.
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Further Reading
Harwit, M. (1973): Astrophysical Concepts (Wiley, New York).
Rybicki, G. B., Lightman, A. F. (1979): Radiative Processes in Astrophysics (Wiley, New York).
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (1996). Temperatures. In: Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (eds) Fundamental Astronomy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03215-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03215-2_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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