this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
529 points (98.9% liked)
Technology
87279 readers
3061 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That is how heat works in general, but that has nothing directly to do with reflecting or absorbing IR.
I guess it depends on the context, initially I was making comparisons to heat seeking missiles. In that context, one might use the radar absorbent materials to defeat radar guided missiles, but that trick just doesn't work with heat, as you can't "permanently" absorb heat the way you can other kinds of energy. If your vehicle is also generating heat, hiding that is quite difficult.
You don't need to absorb it, just emit less. Lower the emissivity and the at the same temperature it will appear colder to a thermal camera etc.
Agreed, that's a great trick, except sometimes emitting less isn't really an option if you need the afterburner to keep running. And in fact, being able to radiate that heat away quickly can be important to avoid parts melting. You can dump heat into the exhaust, but that isn't always helpful. Leaving the only real alternative to just make something else emit more (a flare).