The universe is pretty cold. The temperature of the universe is 2.7 Kelvin, or minus 454.81 degrees Fahrenheit, or 270.45 degrees Celsius, meaning it’s only slightly hotter than absolute zero at which molecular motion stops. According to this Popular Mechanicstemperatures in these barren areas can drop to -455 degrees Fahrenheit (2.7 Kelvin).

For physicists, knowing the temperature of space is all about motion and speed. James Sowell, an astronomer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said he and his scientists used unconventional terms when they discussed room temperature. For example, we would use the term “heat” to describe the velocities of all particles in a given volume.

Stars like our sun produce most, if not all, of the heat in the universe. The temperature inside the Sun, where nuclear fusion takes place, can reach 15 million Kelvin. (They reach about 5,800 Kelvin at the surface.) The heat emitted from the sun and other stars is known as solar radiation and propagates in space as infrared energy waves. Anything invisible to the Sun stays cold because these Sun rays only heat the particles that get in their way.

Even on Mercury, the Sun’s closest neighbor, the surface temperature drops by about 95 Kelvin at night. The maximum temperature on Pluto’s surface is about 40 Kelvin.

Coincidentally, the lowest temperature in the Solar System was measured much closer to Earth. According to this New Scientist, while observing the temperature in a deep crater on the moon, it was found that the temperature dropped to about 33 Kelvin. Extremely cold -400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Where is the coldest place in the solar system?

However, this temperature varies throughout the solar system. So-called “empty” space is much colder than objects such as planets, moons, and asteroids because there is almost nothing there to absorb solar radiation. If you don’t count the usual “empty” space, which is the coldest region of the solar system? And how does it relate to Earth’s temperature?

“shadow craters” at the moon’s south pole may be the coldest place in the solar system, according to data published in 2009 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a robotic spacecraft designed to help scientists better understand lunar conditions.

Later, planetary scientists from the University of Arizona, Patrick O’Brien and Shane Byrne, doctors of philosophy, supported this view. According to O’Brien and Byrne, their discussion at the 2022 Conference on Lunar and Planetary Studies, “double shadow” lunar craters may be “the coldest places in the solar system.”

O’Brien and Byrne said a crater can be doubly shaded if protected from direct sunlight and secondary heat sources such as solar radiation reflected from nearby illuminated areas and thermal radiation emitted from hot surfaces.

Don Pollacco, a professor of astronomy at the University of Warwick in England, added that “double shadow” craters are very cold because they “have quite high edges and sunlight never reaches them.” According to O’Brien and Byrne’s research, these “permanently shadowy regions” have been “protected” from sunlight for billions of years, meaning their craters may contain “micro cold traps” that contain “not just water ice but much more.” These can be volatile compounds and elements such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and argon.

These craters may be even cooler than the estimated 25 Kelvin (minus 414.67 F or 248.15 C) temperature given by O’Brien and Byrne.