Quote:
Originally Posted by drhex
Outer space certainly has considerably lower particle density than air on earth, so does its low temperature really "count"?
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Think about the Sun - you can feel its heat across 150,000,000km of 'empty' space.
Conductive heat isn't the only means to get rid of thermal energy - it can also radiate away (such as holding your hands up infront of a fire). The black fins on an RTG are there to radiate away the thermal energy. Radiating it into the depths of space is quite an efficient way to do it. Lots of spacecraft use various techniques to do the same to get rid of any excess heat from inside.
Doug