Space is filled with billions of hot burning stars that are far bigger and hotter than our own Sun
Despite that space is unbelievably cold if there are so many hot stars in space radiating such a staggering amount of heat
Why is space still so cold?
There is only one star in our solar system the Sun it provides all of our daylight and natural heating
However, the Sun is quite far away from us around 150 million kilometres to be precise
It's so far away that even it's light
Something that can cover three hundred thousand kilometres in a single second takes eight minutes to reach us
even over that massive distance
Temperatures can get so high during scorching summer days that it feels like the Sun is sitting right on top of us
now think about this if only one star
One that is millions of kilometres away from us can heat up our planets so fast and so comprehensively
What would happen if there were more than one star in our proximity?
After the Sun the star closest to our solar system is Proxima Centauri
It is located 4.3 light years from our planet. This star is actually part of a three star system
The other two star is being Alpha Centauri a and Alpha Centauri B
Interestingly when you look up at the night sky, you can see around five thousand stars with the naked eye
Provided you're not in a severely air polluted location
However, that's just what you can see with the naked eye more advanced space telescopes can see billions of stars out there in space
If there are so many stars out there, it seems fair to assume. That space is a really really hot place, right?
Well, not really
From a purely technical standpoint
It's incorrect to say that space is cold space is not cold because space is not actually anything
It's not factually correct to say that space is cold nor is it fair to say that space is hot
Because a perfect vacuum has no temperature at all as such space doesn't have a temperature of its own
It's generally said that space is cold
But space is not cold in and of itself rather the things in space are cold and why do things become cold in space?
The answer that is simple heat transfer
In basic terms heat transfer is the process by which heat flows from one object or system to another
Due to temperature differences between the two there are three main ways by which heat transfer occurs
conduction convection and radiation
You can heat only one side of a steel plate on a cooktop yet the entire plate will get hot
That's an example of heat transfer due to conduction all
The water inside a container becomes hot when you only apply heat to the bottom of that container, which is a classic example of convection
We all experience the scorching heat of the Sun when we step out of the house on a hot summer day. Why is that?
radiation
Similarly you may have noticed that when you sit in front of an incandescent lamp for too long
It feels warmer than the rest of the darkroom. That's also because the lamp emitting heat as radiation
Now the interesting thing about radiation is that it doesn't require any kind of contact between the heat source and the object
unlike conduction and convection
Both of which require matter to transfer heat?
Everything in space unless they are very close to a heat source, like our Sun becomes cold because it constantly loses heat due to radiation
However, if that's the case, why does our planet stay warm?
Earth remains warm because of its atmosphere which acts like a blanket that traps the heat from the Sun and keeps the planet warm
The moon temperature conditions will be vastly different from what you experience here on the moon
You would experience huge temperature fluctuations, depending on whether it's daytime or nighttime
Simply because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere like the one on earth
The loss of heat due to radiation is the primary cause for things getting cold in space
Which is why it's generally said that space is cold despite being
nothing
That being said empty space does contain atoms albeit a very very small amount of them
Far from stars and planets deep space is filled with a very thin gas that does have a temperature one. That is very low
Why is that especially when space is filled with billions and billions of hot burning stars?
There are two reasons behind this first of all stars are really really far away from each other
They may look all bunched up together when you look at them in the night sky
But the stars you're seeing up. There are billions of kilometres away from Earth and a long way from each other
Consider the case of Proxima Centauri the closest star after the Sun. It is located at a distance of roughly
4.3 light years to put this in perspective if a car starts from Earth and travels at a speed of 60 miles per hour
It would take more than 48 million years to reach that star. That's how far away it is from us
This is just one example the stars in space are extremely far away from each other
Contrary to what one might assume when they look up at a twinkling night sky
All these stars are extremely hot. Sure
But they are so far apart and have so much space between them that it's simply impossible for them to heat up all of space
Expecting these stars to heat the entirety of outer space is akin to expecting a bonfire in your backyard to heat up your whole country
Basically, it's a terribly impractical expectation
The other reason behind the apparent coldness of space is related to it being a vacuum space is one enormous vacuum
Which inherently means that there is no matter of any kind that could facilitate any sort of heat transfer
except for planets and other celestial bodies
There's nothing in space that the stores heat or passes along Heat in
Simple words the Rays of the star don't keep space because there's nothing to heat
However, if you were left in space close to Earth and you were directly facing the Sun you would get heated to a few hundred
degrees because you would be dangerously close to that star and
It's such a small distance the rays from the Sun would heat up your body
All objects lose heat due to radiation
but those that are close to a star get heated up again and
Therefore never become as cold as the objects that are billions of kilometers away from any star
This is why if you were left in deep space
Where you wouldn't be as close to any star as you were to the Sun right now?
Then your body would experience a freezing cold as it would start losing heat
I'll be it this process of losing heat and getting cold would occur quite slowly
In a nutshell space is cold despite having so many hot stars because space also contains such an incomprehensible
large amount of nothingness
Saying that space is cold
However is too simple what you should say is that an object in space is so far from any source of heat or radiation
That it ends up losing more heat than it gains. Which makes it cold
There's just simply not enough hot stars to warm the entire universe entirely