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Goldilocks (files.catbox.moe)
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[-] tomiant@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago

Space has no temperature. Space is a vacuum. Temperature needs things to jiggle.

[-] salvaria@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 week ago

The average temperature of the universe today is approximately 2.73 K (−270.42 °C; −454.76 °F), based on measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero

Cited from https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/09/25/947116.htm

[-] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Wonder how they calculated the "average" temperature. Was it weighted by mass or by volume?

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Only mass-weighting really makes sense here imo

[-] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Wouldn't that be just star and not star?

[-] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

No - it'd mostly be dark matter vs not dark matter.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm still on the "dark matter isn't real" train. It would be so unsatisfying if it was the answer.

[-] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Dark mind is definitely real though

[-] vin@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 week ago

Doesn't matter, it's just the eventual temperature of a black body kept in deep space

[-] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

That's purely academic. IRL what actually matters is “how big and reflective is the thing you're in”.

You'd get real hot real fast in a matte black space suit.

[-] tomiant@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Well yes, because space is not actually a complete vacuum.

[-] essell@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

But a thing in space is not a vacuum and is subject to heating via solar radiation

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And actually, space only gets cold (more surface radiation cooling than solar heating) a bit after Mars orbit. On earth orbit, it's already a bit toasty.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, that's kinda why it's cold. Cold is just an absense of heat.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Cold is the absence of heat in a medium that can interact with temperature imo. It certainly wouldn't act like normal cold; if you stuck your hand out and felt the vaccuum, it wouldn't feel cold, and the heat in your hand would not flow outwards into space very much. There's no convection, only radiation. Space isn't cold, matter is cold, and there's no matter.

this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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