Internal Heating
Internal heat is the heat source from the interior of celestial objects, such as planets, brown dwarfs, and stars, caused by gravity, nuclear fission and decaying radioactive materials. The amount of internal heating depends on mass; the more massive the object, the more internal heat it has. The internal heating keeps celestial objects warm and active.
The internal heat is the heat left over from formation of celestial objects. The aging objects lose internal heat gradually except for stars.
Read more about Internal Heating: Brown Dwarfs, Stars
Famous quotes containing the words internal and/or heating:
“We all run on two clocks. One is the outside clock, which ticks away our decades and brings us ceaselessly to the dry season. The other is the inside clock, where you are your own timekeeper and determine your own chronology, your own internal weather and your own rate of living. Sometimes the inner clock runs itself out long before the outer one, and you see a dead man going through the motions of living.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“If the factory people outside the colleges live under the discipline of narrow means, the people inside live under almost every other kind of discipline except that of narrow means—from the fruity austerities of learning, through the iron rations of English gentlemanhood, down to the modest disadvantages of occupying cold stone buildings without central heating and having to cross two or three quadrangles to take a bath.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)