Like i understand there isn’t a lot of things for the heat from Stars to bounce off of but what causes Space itself to be cold? Is it naturally always cold and if so why?
In: Planetary Science
Heat is not a substance, it is the motion of matter. Take the same coin, if its pieces are jiggling around very fast, it is hot, if they are sluggish, it is cold. Empty space is not hot or cold, the concept doesn’t apply; it is not made of matter.
Now, there is a thing called radiant heat, which is actually a way to move heat around, not heat itself. The pieces of hot things jiggling around smash into each other a lot, and when they do it it makes them glow just a little bit. That glow is infrared light, which bleeds off a little bit of their speed, which makes the hot thing colder. If that light hits another thing, the light will heat the other thing up, which is why it’s called radiant heat.
If a thing is alone in space shaded from sunlight, it shoots off its infrared glow, becoming colder, without getting warmed by anything else’s radiant heat. That is why we say it is cold in space. Not because space is cold, but because things get colder alone in space.
But space is not cold.
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