SPACE — The universe has many mysteries. One mystery that may make you curious is what is the temperature in space? How do astronomers measure it?
Trying to deduce the temperature of space is an interesting question. Unfortunately there is no simple and direct answer.
Temperature is a measurement of the kinetic energy of particles of matter. Astronomers often refer to the ‘temperature’ of a region of space to indicate the kinetic energy of matter in that region.
In general, there is not enough matter in space to transfer heat (or freezing) to other objects. So if you place an object in space, the temperature it reaches depends on how much radiation it receives and how good it is at absorbing and emitting that radiation.
However, the temperature is only a measure of the heat balance between the object and its environment, and not ‘room’ temperature.
So, what temperatures can we measure in space? Reporting from BBC Sky at Night, space itself does not consist of matter and therefore has no temperature.
There are many variations in temperature throughout the Universe. The coldest naturally occurring temperature in the Universe was discovered in the Boomerang Nebula in 1995.
This cloud of gas and dust, in the constellation Centaurus, was released by a star nearing the end of its life. Its temperature, as a result of the slow expansion of gas clouds, is only -272°C.
The hottest temperatures in space are likely produced in catalytic interactions that create Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). The temperature may be as high as trillions of degrees.
Between these two extremes there is a very large temperature range and the temperature of the object is constantly changing.
How cold can something get?
Physicists have determined that there is a lower limit on the temperature scale called ‘absolute zero’. This temperature occurs at -273.15°C, or 0 Kelvin (K).
No matter how cold something is, it can never reach absolute zero (although it can get close).
Strictly speaking, the coldest place in the universe was in a laboratory in Finland in 2000, when the temperature was only one 100 trillionth above absolute zero.
2024-03-03 08:16:00
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