eli5: Why isn’t outer space hot (or at least not freezing)?

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The sun warms up our planet but space is cold. If I lit a candle and stood 20 feet away, I could see the light but not feel the warmth. So, why do we feel warmth from the sun but space isn’t warmed by it?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Space doesn’t have a temperature, it’s a vacuum.

Temperature is the kinetic energy of the particles inside an object. You can’t have temperature without particles.

Space doesn’t have a temperature, but objects in space have temperature because they’re made up of particles.

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