How does the Sun heat Earth but the space in between Earth and the Sun is cold?

Question

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: 19

Answer 1

Because atmosphere

Outer space does not have an atmosphere, any object heated by the sun in that space will quickly lose that heat if it moves away and/or into the sun’s shadow (e.g. behind a planet)

Earth does have an atmosphere, so for example when the sun sets and it becomes night time, the location where it becomes night doesn’t become cold immediately.