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Name: nick
Status: student
Age: 18
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999 - 2000
Question:
whats the tempeture in space??

Replies:
The temperature in space varies from the very cold -- from almost absolute zero [-273.15C] to millions of degrees in stars. The temperature of an object suspended in space -- a space shuttle or a planet -- will be hot or cold depending upon the amount of radiation that it absorbs. In our solar system that means the Sun. So in shadows it gets very cold, and in the sunlight it gets very hot. Of course, how far away the object is from the Sun is important since the intensity of radiation falls off as 1/D^2 where D is the distance from the Sun.

Vince Calder

Nick -

In a pure vacuum temperature does not exist. Temperature is a measure of the energy of the motion of the molecules in a substance. No substance.... no temperature.

In reality, space is not a perfect vacuum, but it is so far between molecules, that it is difficult to talk about temperature in a meaningful way.

Larry Krengel


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