BRAINCAKEBlack-Body Radiation
A black body is an idealised object that is a perfect absorber and emitter of all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation it emits, called black-body radiation, has a continuous spectrum whose shape depends only on its temperature, not on what it is made of.
Stars are good approximations to black bodies, so their spectra can be used to find their surface temperatures.
A graph of intensity against wavelength for a black body is called a black-body curve:
• intensity rises from zero at short wavelengths to a peak at λmax, then falls off more gradually at long wavelengths
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More in Astrophysics
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- Wien's Displacement Law
- Stefan's Law
- Spectral Classes
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All 24 lessons in Astrophysics · All AQA A-level Physics topics