What is the temperature in space? Secrets of the Universe

For a modern man, outer space has become much more understandable than it was at least a century ago. But the universe continues to conceal in itself an unimaginable number of mysteries and mysteries. Thanks to the rapid and rapid technological progress, we have already managed to find answers to many questions that have been stirring people's minds for centuries and millennia.

But, despite this, the space is still mysterious and unexplored. The deeper a person penetrates into the secrets of the universe, the more cosmic depths pop up riddles and generate questions. For example, what is the temperature in space, and what are the physical conditions beyond our planet? The answers to these seemingly simple questions, in fact, are not so unambiguous.

In a number of fantastic novels, the temperature in space is described in detail and quite colorfully. As a rule, this physical magnitude is a terrible unimaginable cold. But is it really so? For the vast spaces of deep space, the very notion of temperature is not applicable, since in the ordinary earthly sense it is simply not there.

Therefore, in the traditional sense, the question of what temperature in space is inappropriate. In a vacuum environment, there is no temperature. This physical quantity, which determines all life on the surface of our blue ball, wrapped in a protective atmospheric cocoon, is caused by the speed of the movement of molecules that are absent in open outer space. In any case, in the volume necessary for the formation of any temperature regime.

Asking about the temperature in open space, one should keep in mind exclusively the thermodynamic characteristic of temperature, according to which this physical quantity denotes a certain state of matter. Although there is no matter in outer space, it is permeated through various kinds of radiations of the most varied frequency, speed and intensity.

And the concept of temperature acquires in this aspect a somewhat peculiar meaning. In space, it represents the total energy of all kinds of radiation at a certain point in space. In other words, the temperature in space depends on the individual conditions of a specific section of the universe. Naturally, the closer to the source of radiation, which are usually stars, the higher the intensity and speed of particle motion. Consequently, the thermodynamic index of temperature is higher.

It is considered that at a considerable distance from the celestial bodies, the temperature of outer space is equal to absolute zero (-273.15 degrees on the Kelvin scale). But in the physical sense the situation is somewhat different. If a thermometer is placed in the intergalactic space, it will first show the temperature inherent in the environment from which it was extracted. And only after a while the thermometer starts to heat up.

After all, according to the theory of convective heat exchange, an object that is exposed to direct sunlight is rapidly and very strongly heated. And in conditions of interplanetary space, heating will occur much more intensively. Since cosmic vacuum is practically an ideal heat insulator.

Thermodynamic temperature indicator is an integral part of such an unusual, but really existing concept, like the weather in space, which also arises inside the heavenly bodies. Geomagnetic storms, radiation storms, solar wind - these are the most common and well-known manifestations of the violent temper of the stars. They, along with a mass of other deadly phenomena, form cosmic weather.