Why is space cold if there’s no matter in it?
In: Physics
Space is basically a vaccuum. In space you can only lose energy to radiation. Since nothing heats you up (unless if you are close to and in direct sight of a star) you will continually lose your thermal energy (heat) until you have no energy left. This is all it takes for anything in space to reach extremely low temperatures around 2.7 degrees kelvin.
Space itself contains a few atoms per square meter that has undergone the same effect which is why space is said to be 2.7 kelvin. But these few atoms are not enough to cool you down when you are in space so don’t expect space to cool you down like cold air. You will slowly lose your energy to radiation. Practically no energy is lost because of being in contact with these few cold atoms.
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