So you are saying the sun doesn't heat up the satellites, because there is very little air in the thermosphere? Then why is it so hot up there?
Does the sun only heat up air? But not satellites?
Radiated infrared waves are not absorbed by the spacecraft (metal) at the same rate as the atmosphere (gas molecules). A few gas molecules can absorb enough infrared waves to reach a given temperature much faster than the spacecraft. Not to mention that the hot part of the spacecraft is continually radiating that heat back into space (clear when looking at orbital decay rates vs expected) as well as trying to reach equilibrium with the cold (unlit) site of the space craft.
tl;dr - the difference between radiated heat and conducted heat
The sun emits more frequencies than infrared, do they also not heat up metal?
tl;dr - the difference between radiated heat and conducted heat
read again
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