I see a lot of videos and shows where, if a person gets thrown out of an airlock, they immediately freeze to death. Disregarding the usual Hollywood exarcebation, WHY is space “cold” if the Sun generates so much heat radiation that it warms our very planet every day? Shouldn’t space be “warm”, then?
In: Physics
One of the ways heat is transferred is by particles interacting. Hotter particles travel faster and transmit more energy = more heat. This is why you can be in a 100°C sauna for a couple of minutes, but if you put your hand in a 100°C pot of water you get burned instantly: there’s simply less particles to interact with and transfer that 100°. Since space is a vacuum, there are no particles to interact with and therefore no heat. And to go full ELI5: because cold is the absence of heat, space is cold.
The side of you that is in the sunlight could get pretty hot, depending on your proximity to the sun/a star. Mercury has no atmosphere and is over 400°C on the surface so you’d at least freeze while get pretty crispy on one side at that priximity. The surface of the moons of Mars stay beneath freezing temp even in full sunlight, so it’s power diminishes fairly quickly.
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