Josef Stefan

Josef Stefan was an Austrian physicist best known for discovering the Stefan-Boltzmann law, which describes how the brightness of an object’s thermal radiation depends on its temperature. Specifically, it states that the total energy radiated per unit area increases proportionally to the fourth power of the object's temperature. This principle helps scientists understand how stars, planets, and other objects emit heat and light. Stefan’s work provided a fundamental link between temperature and energy emission, playing a key role in thermodynamics and astrophysics.