I think your problem here is that you're assuming that space is a perfect vacuum. It isn't. There is material floating around out there, and the atoms floating around in space are not at absolute zero.

So I think you're making an assumption on how much of a vacuum space is compared to how much it really is.

And yes, there isn't much stuff in space. In interplanetary space there are about 5 particles per cubic centimeter, and outside our solar system it is significantly less density than that.

Cosmos or space void isn't hard vacuum. There's both matter (mostly through dispersed hydrogen atoms) and energy (CMBR, EMR of various kinds and so on) in space which attests to this "higher than absolute zero" background temperature. Technically there's also Planck fluctuations, i forgot how it's called in a proper way.

They're probably assuming an object, likely a black sphere, at a specific location or in a specific orbit. It's probably black because you have to specify emissivity and absorptivity numbers to calculate temperature in a radiation-dominated environment, and it's an easy shortcut to say both are 1.0 for a perfect black surface. Of course they may have a real surface property in mind like black anodized aluminum or whatever but then someone has to actually look up the properties. It's probably a sphere of area = 1 for simplicity.

Alternatively they may be referring to the random molecules and particles floating around in interstellar space. Near Earth there is atomic oxygen, each atom of which is relatively hot but there are so few of them that the overall environment isn't affected by their presence. Out in interstellar space there would be atoms that would be colder. That's just an assumption on my part, all of my experience is in LEO.

It’s the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation left after the Big Bang. It doesn’t rely on a medium to propagate energy.

What…. Space ain’t a total vacuum my dude. It is just a vacuum i. e. there ain’t no earth atmosphere in it.

Where there is energy there is temperature.

Hence space has temperature almost always above total zero though usually an unimaginably low magnitude above.

For example the closer you get to the sun the warmer since the more energy and stuff is in the vacuum. It is not like there is a hard cut or wall like barrier.

So the reason answers are contradictory is because space temperature is contradictory. It is not the same everywhere, at all.

Since people gather new information each day statements about an average change as well

Perhaps in this context the "temperature" is the equilibrium point between incoming radiation and radiated energy for some idealised spherical cow.

There's very little convection in a vacuum so radiative cooling and insolation are the main variables in calculating temperature.

Hello u/Aporue76, your submission "Contradictory information regarding the temperature of space." has been removed from r/space because:

• Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.