Abstract
FEW questions bearing directly on terrestrial physics have been so much, overlooked as that of the temperature of stellar space, that is to say, the temperature which a thermometer would indicate if placed at the outer limits of our atmosphere and exposed to no other influence than that of radiation from the stars. Were we asked what was probably the mid-winter temperature, of our island 11,700 years ago, when the winter solstice was in aphelion? we could not tell unless we knew the temperature of space. Again, without a knowledge of the temperature of space, it could not be ascertained how much the temperature of the North Atlantic and the air over it were affected by the Gulf Stream. We can determine the quantity of heat conveyed into the Atlantic by the stream, and compare it with the amount received by that area directly from the sun, bat this alone does not enable us to say how much the temperature is raised by the heat conveyed. We know that the basin of the North Atlantic receives from the Gulf Stream a quantity of heat equal to about one-fourth that received from the sun, but unless we know the temperature of space we cannot say how much this one-fourth raises the temperature of the Atlantic. Suppose 56° to be the temperature of that ocean: this is 517° of absolute temperature which is derived from three sources, viz.: (1) direct heat from the sun, (2) heat from the Gulf Stream, and (3) heat from the stars. Now unless we know what proportion the heat of the stars bears to that of the sun we have no means of knowing how much of the 517° is due to the stars and how much to the sun or to the Gulf Stream.
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CROLL, J. The Temperature of Space and its Bearing on Terrestrial Physics . Nature 21, 521–522 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021521a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021521a0