Earth’s temperature ranges from -89°C to 58°C, while the Sun’s surface temperature is 5780K. Iron melts at 1811K, and the Earth’s molten core is 5650K. Temperatures above 1GK are reserved for special phenomena in the universe, such as supernovae, and the estimated temperature of the universe after the Big Bang is 1030K.
On Earth, we’re only lucky to experience temperatures close to the lower limit of what’s possible. Temperatures on Earth range from 184 K (-89 °C, -128.6 °F) to 331 K (58 °C, 136.4 °F), with an average surface temperature of 287 K (14 °C, 57 °F). 287 K is quite small compared to, for example, the surface temperature of the Sun, which is 5780 K.
1170 K is the approximate temperature of a log of wood burning in a fire. Iron melts at 1811 K. The temperature of the Earth’s molten core is about 5650 K. At 7000 K, the most familiar elements and compounds, such as carbon, vaporize. Generally at temperatures well below 9000K, the gases become a plasma, which is an ionized gas, meaning that electrons are stripped from the atomic nuclei and float freely in the mixture. Tungsten does not vaporize up to 15500K.
Sustained temperatures greater than about a few kK (kiloKevin, or 1000 K) are found primarily in the cores of gas giants and inside stars and other exotic astronomical objects. The temperature of Jupiter’s core is estimated at 20-30 kK. The hottest lightning ever measured on Earth was 28 kK. The temperature on the surface of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is about 33 kK.
Temperatures above 100 kK are generated by atomic bombs, particle accelerators, experimental fusion reactors and in stars. The temperature about 17 meters from the detonation point of Little Boy, one of the first atomic bombs, would have been about 300 kK. Local excitations caused by X-rays have a temperature in this range. The corona of the Sun, which is significantly hotter than its surface, has a temperature between 1 and 10 MK (megaKelvin, or one million Kelvin). The core of the Sun is 13.6 MK and the temperature for controlled nuclear fusion is 100 MK. The Sun successfully fuses atomic nuclei due to its extremely high pressure along with heat. Local excitations caused by gamma rays fall into this heat range.
Temperatures above 1 GK (gigaKelvin, or one billion Kelvin) are reserved for special phenomena in the universe, such as matter-antimatter reactions, supernovae, galactic cluster mergers, and (for minute fractions of a second) in particle accelerators. A supernova explosion has temperatures of about 10 GK. Heavy elements like uranium are created in this intense heat.
The highest temperature ever is probably 1030 K, the estimated temperature of the universe an instant after the Big Bang.
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