Temperature in Space

Film directors and science fiction writers are constantly trying to prove to us that a man who suddenly got into an open space without a spacesuit will die in a split second. According to them, the temperature in the Cosmos is such that no living thing without special equipment is able to stay in the open space of the universe for more than a second. For example, this is quite interesting and brightly written in one of the works of Arthur C. Clark: the hero, who was in the open Cosmos, instantly dies because of the severe frost and internal pressure. However, according to the theoretical calculations of modern scientists, the death of a person in such conditions does not come at a moment's notice.

Often an assumption is made that a person who finds himself in the open space of the cosmos will be torn from within by sharply increased pressure. Space is an ideal vacuum, and in the human body, pressure is maintained in approximately one atmosphere. At first glance, it may seem that such a resonance is enough to ensure that the living creature instantly perishes from the "explosion".

In fact, no "explosion" will occur - body tissues are characterized by sufficient strength and are able to cope with the pressure in one atmosphere. Instead of the expected reaction, something else happens: the capillaries burst, which supply the skin with blood, which is quite an unpleasant phenomenon, but not at all fatal.

Another reason why a person can die very quickly in the open space of the universe is the very temperature of the Cosmos, which, according to some data, reaches an absolute zero in Kelvin (-273.15 ° C). More precisely, people think that they do not know anything about the temperature features of interplanetary space. The temperature in the open Cosmos, strange as it sounds, is the absence of any temperature. The outer space, according to the researchers, has no temperature, accordingly, it can not neither heat nor cool the living organism in it.

What is traditionally meant by a term such as "temperature"? Firstly, the chaotic motion of atoms or molecules, of which absolutely all bodies are composed. The more the molecules move, the correspondingly the higher the thermometer. Where there is no substance as such, there can be no question of such a notion as temperature. Cosmic space is just a place where matter is very small. Therefore, they say that the temperature in the Cosmos is its complete absence. However, bodies that are in interplanetary space have very different thermal indices, which depend on the set of all possible parameters.

The cosmic space is filled with radiation of sources having the most varied intensity and frequency. And the temperature in the Cosmos, from this point of view, is understood as the total energy of radiation in a certain place of space.

A thermometer in an open outer space will first show the temperature that was characteristic of the environment from which it was extracted, for example, from the interior space of a spaceship. Over time, the device will heat up, and very much. After all, in conditions where there is convective heat transfer, objects lying in direct sunlight heat up sufficiently strongly, so that they can not be touched. In the Cosmos such heating will be much stronger, since the vacuum is the ideal heat insulator.

Thus, the temperature in the Cosmos is a relative term, however, depending on where the body is at, it can be heated or cooled. Away from the stars, where practically no heat flows, the temperature of such a body will be approximately 2.725 Kelvin, since the relict radiation is spreading throughout the known to the astronomers of the part of the universe, but as the body approaches a star, it will gradually increase.