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How Cold is Space?
Written By: Zano Riv
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If you could travel from world to world, from star to star, out into the gulfs of intergalactic space, you'd move away from the warmth of the stars into the vast and cold depths of the void. But, how cold? How cold is space? Unlike your house, car, or swimming pool, the vacuum of space has no temperature. So, how cold is space? That's a nonsense question. It's only when you put a thing in space, like a rock, or an astronaut, that you can measure temperature. Remember there are three ways that heat can transfer: conduction, convection and radiation. Heat up one side of a metal bar, and the other side will get hot too; that's conduction. Circulating air can transfer heat from one side of the room to another; that's convection. But out in the vacuum of space, the only way heat can transfer is radiation.