Black-body radiation can give rise to a net attractive force between tiny objects. That is the claim made by physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, who have calculated the strength of this new force between a speck of dust and a hydrogen atom. The team believes that in some situations the force could be more significant than gravity – which means that its presence could have important effects on the behaviour of clouds of gas and dust in space.
The new attractive force—which the scientists call the "blackbody force"—suggests that a variety of astrophysical scenarios should be revisited.
The discovery that blackbody radiation can impart an overall attractive force on nearby objects could have great significance for many astrophysical scenarios, in particular the interaction between interstellar gas and dust grains. The findings could also have applications in experimental set-ups, such as the effects of hot microstructured surfaces in vacuum chambers. However, the scientists note that the attractive blackbody force will be difficult to measure in the lab because it will be very weak under typical laboratory conditions.
The new attractive force—which the scientists call the "blackbody force"—suggests that a variety of astrophysical scenarios should be revisited.
The discovery that blackbody radiation can impart an overall attractive force on nearby objects could have great significance for many astrophysical scenarios, in particular the interaction between interstellar gas and dust grains. The findings could also have applications in experimental set-ups, such as the effects of hot microstructured surfaces in vacuum chambers. However, the scientists note that the attractive blackbody force will be difficult to measure in the lab because it will be very weak under typical laboratory conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment