I thought an atom had to touch another atom in order to lose entropy.
So since space is a vacuum, shouldn’t something drifting along in space not ever touching another object retain its heat forever?
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Oddly enough, one of the problems we have in space is not keeping things warm, but keeping them cool! The various space stations we put into orbit frequently have large radiators to get rid of excess heat, because when they’re exposed to the sun they absorb a lot of heat, but they have a hard time getting rid of it- vacuum and near-vacuum is a great insulator (consider thermos bottles).
When objects are further away from sources of light and heat like our sun or in the shadow of something, they will cool down over time. But the vacuum of space is actually a quite effective insulator.
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