[mjan22640]

- absorption and radiation are correlated (a black surface would radiate more than a white surface when heated to 6000K (assuming they survive the temperature unchanged)) - a solid polished surface reflects better than a powder surface (thats imho a flaw in the article) - basically you want a surface that is white in solar and black in atmospheric

[culopatin]

One of my high school professors touched on this when talking about heatsink design and I thought I remembered it wrong, glad to see it come up here.

[trilbyglens]

Exactly. The trick here is that you're exploiting overlaps in emission and absorption spectra in the atmosphere.