0

Basically, I'm seeing that intergalactic medium can sometimes have a temperature in excess of 10^5 K. Would the high temperatures have an effect on intergalactic travel?

auPHE
  • 1
  • Good answers here https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/71358/interstellar-dust-matter-distribution – ProfRob May 02 '17 at 06:50
  • Temperature is not the issue, dust would be a much bigger dilemma as Rob and dmckee eluded to. In fact, once one is past Jupiter many instruments need heaters to keep them warm enough to operate so it's not about "burning up" as your question seems to suggest. – honeste_vivere May 02 '17 at 12:46

1 Answers1

0

No and Yes.

The inter-planetary medium is a large fraction of that hot and much denser, yet it is routinely ignored for thermal purpose because radiative heat transfer dominates the problem by many orders of magnitude.

On the other hand shielding against the ionizing effect of running into stray gas and dust at relativistic velocity is a huge concern just as it would be for interstellar travel.

But either way it will be a solved issue long before the matter comes up.