If the Sun is able to keep Earth warm while being millions of miles away, shouldn’t it get warmer and warmer the closer you get to it (like when you go to space)? Like how it would get warmer if you were to approach a burning house for example?
In: Planetary Science
So, couple of things here.
It does get hot in the path of the sun. Very hot. Astronaut suits are white and have reflective visors for a reason. All that electromagnetic energy heats things up, so the suits are designed to reflect a lot of it and insulate the human meat bag inside.
The thing is, as soon as an object in Earth’s orbit moves into an area that’s fully shaded, it gets cold. Very cold. Good thing those spacesuits are insulated, because they also keep meat bags from freezing.
The issue is that without an atmosphere, there’s nothing holding all that heat in. So when you’re exposed to the source of energy, you get hit with a lot of it. And when you hide from it, you get exposed to such a small amount, you radiate energy out instead. Here, on the ground, the air holds that heat in. Especially moisture in the air. Deserts aren’t just hot in the daytime. Their temperature drops, a lot, at night.
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