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Heat and black body radiation.
A black body is any object with thermal energy (heat) that emits some of that thermal energy as radiation (light). An object at room temperature emits infrared (IR) light that humans cannot see, but can be seen with an IR-sensitive camera like FSIR/FLIR. As the temperature increases, the spectrum of the emitted energy shifts into the visible region, and the color appears red to humans, like an electric stove coil or a hot catalytic converter. As the temperature increases further, the more blue light will be emitted, and the object will appear white to us. Fortunately, the emission spectrum of a very hot object will not shift appreciably into the UV region (or worse X-ray or gamma-ray portion of the EM spectrum) because the energy transitions are not allowed.
The color temperature of light bulbs (eg 5000K) corresponds to black body radiation. As the filament gets hotter, more blue light is emitted. So, bulbs with higher color temperature often have a blue or violet hue.
Not to be boorish, vulgar, unexceptional and unrefined with my answer… lol :cheer: It’s usually caused by unburned fuel making it all the way to the cat, making it hotter than Sheol…
Two great answers. One that is simple and to the point. And another one that actually make me go “What the heck?”
The short answer is to much raw fuel gets into the converter bed and she becomes extremely overheated. It’s a fire hazard as well, so best to get the cause repaired and cross your fingers that no serious damage happened to the converter.
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