NATS 1945 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Outer Space, Serval, Bow Shocks In Astrophysics

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1945
• Professor: Robin Metcalfe

Document Summary

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (rtg): engine which uses a radioactive substance for the production of electricity. Half-life of pu fuel (87 years) provides continuous and long-term power (though toxic, costly and energy yield is low) Rtg"s (cid:449)ork (cid:448)er(cid:455) si(cid:373)ilar to other heat e(cid:374)gi(cid:374)es. The e(cid:374)gi(cid:374)e (cid:272)o(cid:374)tai(cid:374)s a container of a radioactive isotope, pu-238 is a pop choice, and connected to this container are. Thermoelectric converters, these are devices that convert heat to electricity, by forcing the heat to flow. The rtg therefore becomes, essentially, a battery that you can plus stuff into. The fuel sour(cid:272)e of (cid:272)hoi(cid:272)e for toda(cid:455)"s rtg is pu-238, as you can see, this atom naturally e(cid:373)its radiatio(cid:374) i(cid:374) the for(cid:373) of p"s a(cid:374)d n"s, other(cid:449)ise k(cid:374)o(cid:449)(cid:374) as alpha parti(cid:272)les, a(cid:374)d leaves behind u-234. U-234 is also radioactive, but much less so than pu-238, the half life of u-234 i about 30k more longer than the half-life for pu-238, which is only about.