I always thought that the term „temperature“ describes the amount of movement in matter on a microscope scale. The movement of atoms. So how can there be a temperature in space if there is a vacuum?
In: Planetary Science
The other comments are correct. There is no temperature in space, and objects in space can run hot or cold depending on how far from the sun they are and how much radiating surface they have.
If you want a notion for what it’s like in space, think of wrapping yourself in a *lot* of blankets and then going outside on a cold night and sitting in front of a campfire. In this analogy, the campfire is the sun, the cold weather is deep space, and the blankets are the insulating vacuum of space. Despite the cold night, you will likely overheat because your body is producing heat which you can’t shed effectively with all those blankets around you.
Replace the person with an object that’s warm but not producing heat (say a hot sandwich), and it’ll probably stay at a reasonable temperature because the fire will keep it warm. Get rid of the fire though and *eventually* it’ll freeze, but that will take a long time with all that insulation.
Similarly, an object in deep space (not near a star) will eventually freeze, but that will take a long time. An object near the sun, say in Earth orbit, will generally stay pretty near 0C because the sun will keep things relatively warm, just like it does for the Earth itself. The main concern for satellites is often trying to keep them cool, because in addition to heat from the sun, they’re also burning a lot of power in their internal electronics which they have to try to shed.
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