Researchers from Stanford University have published a paper showing how it’s possible to deliver high performance cooling by beaming heat into space. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows how “radiative cooling” could be used to reduce temperatures by a substantial amount—up to 42.2 °C cooler than the air surrounding it.
According to New Scientist, the technology works by placing a thermal emitter—a device that gives out more heat than it takes in—within a vacuum to decouple it from the surrounding environment and to prevent it from transferring heat due to conduction or convection. The emitter is also designed to emit heat at specific wavelengths that allow it to pass into the atmosphere without being bounced back to Earth. A special window on top of the vacuum chamber allows the heat to radiate from it.
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