Objects falling in the earth's atmosphere can reach a terminal velocity in which they can fall no faster. Is there a synonymous term for objects heating up?
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1What's wrong with "maximum temperature"? Or do you think there should be a free-fall specific maximum temperature vocabulary? – AtmosphericPrisonEscape Jun 10 '21 at 13:15
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@AtmosphericPrisonEscape - "maximum temperature" sounds good to me. In my question, I was attempting to seek a term that relates to a known value such as 5 Billion degrees, if one exists. Thanks for your comment. I understand this is a basic question. – Ross Bush Jun 10 '21 at 13:20
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Steady state temperature. – Chet Miller Jun 10 '21 at 13:54
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The “Planck temperature” is
$$ T_\text{P} = \sqrt{\frac{\hbar c^5}{G k_\text{B}^2}} \approx 1.42\times 10^{32}\rm\,K $$
Some sources refer to this as a “maximum temperature,” by the same logic under which the “Planck length” $\ell_P = \sqrt{\hbar G/c^3}$ is a “minimum length.” But it’s probably more accurate to say that, as the temperature approaches this threshold, there will be quantum-gravity things happening that we currently don’t have any model for. The Wikipedia page currently says
An object with the temperature of ($T_P$) would emit a black body radiation with a peak wavelength of $\ell_P$, where each photon and each individual collision would have the energy to create a micro black hole of Planck mass. There are no known physical models able to describe temperatures greater than or equal to $T_P$.
To my reading the Wikipedia prediction is overconfident; I think there is lots of room for new physics at lower temperatures.
You might like this old post about high-temperature plasmas.
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