Understanding Temperature in Space: Myth or Reality?

[jd12345]

What is the temperature in space? For me temperature is a measure of how fast the moelcules of matter are moving - this is what i have read. If molecules have more kinetic energy they have higher temperature

But space contains nothing so no temperature? Does it have absolute zero temeprature?

 

[haruspex]

Space is nowhere a perfect vacuum. Even the voids between galaxy clusters contain several protons per cubic metre. That's enough to assign a temperature. 100,000K is common.

 

[jd12345]

Oh - didnt know that. What exactly is in space?

 

[tiny-tim]

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

 

[jd12345]

Thank you