How, at 93 million miles away, does the sun feel so warm, yet when a simple cloud passes over it the warmth is incredibly dampened?

Question

How, at 93 million miles away, does the sun feel so warm, yet when a simple cloud passes over it the warmth is incredibly dampened?

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

Space is empty. It’s not even air, it’s a vacuum. We forget that our air and clouds are *stuff*. Compared to empty space, even 93M miles of empty space, a cloud is like a brick wall. They’re hundreds of tons of matter, and they absorb and block the sun’s energy much more than 93M miles of empty space, because space is *nothing*.