Why is space cold if there’s no matter in it?
In: Physics
Basically there isn’t much to heat up because it is empty and any heat will fly off into empty space.
Heat is how much atoms are vibrating. Fast vibrations are hot and slow vibrations are cold. No movement is absolute zero. Space doesn’t have many atoms because it is mostly empty and the ones that are about have very slow vibrations and aren’t moving about.
Because there isn’t much atoms about in space the heat from the sun doesn’t have much to heat up, so it stays cold.
The atoms that are about in space will get heated up by the sun but will quickly cool back down without much chance of passing that heat onto something else nearby (unlike on earth where there are lots of atoms for heat to “move” into).
In space the heat kind of flies off into empty space by radiation, which is a slow process where the vibrating energy kind of gets released with nothing to cling to.
Latest Answers