absolutely no background radiation there, what would it read? Would the temperature be really cold or what?
2007-07-31 22:08:44 · 9 answers · asked by ? 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
If you go to the space between galaxies, the temperature is about 2.7 degrees Kelvin. That's about 455 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. This is the temperature of the cosmic background radiation.
If you go into galaxies, the temperature will depend on exactly where you are. Some of the gasses inside of galaxies can be millions of degrees and are very strong x-ray emmitters. This is in spite of the fact that the density of these gasses is well below any vacuum we can produce on earth.
It should be pointed out that ordinary thermometers do not work at such temperatures or densities.
2007-08-01 00:29:07 · answer #1 · answered by mathematician 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, firstly there is no place in space without light, heat or background radiation sources. They can be reduced, but never eliminated.
However, going with your theoretical situation, the thermometer would read near absolute zero. It would radiate away its own heat into the vacuum.
However, do not get confused. Space has no temperature. It cannot have. Temperature is defined as a property of matter, and therefore a vacuum such as that in space cannot by definition have a temperature. A thermometer, any thermometer, reads only its OWN temperature. Because its temperature is affected by its surroundings you can assume that a thermometer is reading the temperature of whatever it is immersed in. In a vacuum it is immersed, literally, in nothing. The thermometer in space will get cold, but you cannot then say that space itself is cold.
2007-08-01 05:43:46 · answer #2 · answered by Jason T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had read somewhere that the temperature of space is generally close to absolute zero when one is away from all sources of energy. If memory serves me correct, intergalactic space would read 2 to 3 degrees give or take on an scale based on absolute zero. I also remember reading somewhere that absolute zero is theoretical, and might not be able to be attained, but that very close is the best possible. One has to figure if you measure temperature, it is the temperature of something; an atom all alone in space or space without an atom in sight? Then one measures the amount of energy, but in what spectrum? Where can you go in the universe where there is no light, no other radiation, and the conversion of that to what we associate as heat?
2007-08-01 05:31:19 · answer #3 · answered by mike453683 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Disregarding the thermometer, the temperature of space is absolute zero.
2007-08-01 05:17:20 · answer #4 · answered by dealerofdestruction 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Super cold, from what I've heard.
When the Russians sent a probe to land on Venus they used the cold of space to bring the interior temperature down inside the instrument package before it entered the planet's atmosphere.
The interior remained cold long enough for the probe to send back readings from the surface.
2007-08-01 05:13:41 · answer #5 · answered by Warren D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the thermometer would gradually lose all its energy (the kinetic energy the molecules have). I would guess that the thermometer would get so cold that it would break. Very very cold, if not absolute zero, then extremely close to it!
2007-08-01 05:12:57 · answer #6 · answered by vEngful.Gibb0n 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it was a Mercury thermometer, and the glass was really strong (so that it did not burst in the vacuum), the reading would be way below since the mercury would be frozen.
2007-08-01 05:13:11 · answer #7 · answered by ag_iitkgp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be –459.67 °F or –273.15 °C. Which is absolute zero.
2007-08-01 07:47:05 · answer #8 · answered by Boliver Bumgut 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nothing it will remain as it is.
2007-08-01 05:57:31 · answer #9 · answered by s.s.khatri 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋