site's title and link back to the home page

decorative picture for the mainstream pages Theory arrow back picture and link to the observational tutorials Temperatures in the Universe

CONTENT - A list of the temperatures reached by objects in the Universe. A tutorial in our series 'Advanced Studies in Astronomy'
 

Most events in the Universe are of the energetic type, as they are generating heat. The celestial objects which may result from such events are thus keeping a part of that heat. Here is following a list of the temperatures which one may meet in the Universe. There is not, theoretically, any unsurpassable point in temperature in the Universe as, on the other hand, there cannot be any temperature lower than 0°. K, which is -459,67° F; or -273,15° C. The bulk of the visible matter in the Universe is made up of protons. When the energy of a particle or a body is accelerated, its wavelength turns smaller. Currently, nearly everything scientists know about the Universe comes from detecting and analyzing the light of cosmological sources in all its forms across the electromagnetic spectrum — radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Each wavelength adds a different detail about the composition, temperature, and speed of these sources, among other physical characteristics (temperatures given by increasing order, from the Absolute Zero)

Cosmic dust comprises a potpourri of particles, including water ice, hydrocarbons, silicates and other solid material. It has many origins and sources, from the leftovers of star and planet formation to molecules modified over millions of years by interactions with starlight. Carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are the three most abundant elements in the Milky Way Galaxy after hydrogen and helium. Whereas hydrogen and helium were created in the Big Bang, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen arise from nucleosynthesis in stars. The intergalactic medium (IGM) is mostly hydrogen blasted with high-energy radiation, thus ionized as that intense ultraviolet radiation might come from from star-forming galaxies. Helium is the second most abundant element in the Universe, after hydrogen. Phenomena across the Universe emit radiation spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum from high-energy gamma rays to lower-energy microwaves and radio waves. All of space is filled with particles, and when these particles get moving at high speeds, they are called radiation. Space is not a completely empty vacuum: it’s actually filled with electrically charged particles and electric and magnetic fields, which form a state of matter called plasma, constituting 99 percent of the cosmos. Plasma consists of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions, which are atoms that have lost their electrons. It is a fourth state of matter —  not a gas, liquid, or solid — which conducts electricity and is affected by magnetic fields as it generates waves to carry energy. All of this magnetic and electric energy means that a phenomenon called 'magnetic reconnection,' like that seen in the Earth's magnetosphere, plays a huge role in shaping the environment wherever plasma exists be it at the Sun or in interplanetary space, or at the boundaries of Earth’s magnetic system. Magnetic reconnection is a process in which magnetic fields reconfigure suddenly, releasing huge amounts of energy. When magnetic field lines snap and join back together in new formations, some of the energy that was stored in the magnetic field is converted to particle energy in the forms of heat and kinetic energy. Reconnection impacts both the temperature and speed of particles in a plasma, two of the defining characteristics. More detailed, complex version of the physics are needed to understand reconnection through models known as non-ideal plasmas. Magnetic reconnection and turbulence are the main phenomena occurring in the Universe made of plasma. Almost all of the astrophysical plasmas we look at around the Sun, stars, black holes, accretion disks, jets, are all extremely featuring turbulence. Cosmic dust, on a other hand, is a minor but crucial ingredient of the interstellar matter in galaxies, which consists mainly of gas and provides the raw material for the birth of new generations of stars. The terms 'cold Universe' are designating gas and dust that are only a few tens of degrees above the absolute zero. The two known sources of X-ray emission in the solar system are the solar wind, the sea of solar material that fills the solar system, and the Local Hot Bubble, a area of hot interstellar material that surrounds our solar system. A supernova exploded and ionized the Local Hot Bubble 10 million years ago, and probably two or three supernova over time, one inside the other. The helium-focusing cone, on a other hand, is a region of space where neutral helium is several times denser than in the rest of the inner solar system. It is due to the solar system moving through interstellar space. Because that space is filled with hydrogen and helium, and the helium a little heavier, it carves around the Sun to form a tail. A entire group of X-rays however don’t come from any known source. Cosmic radiation and wisps of hot hydrogen and helium gases is composing the Local Interstellar Cloud, as far as it is concerned, roughly 30 light-years across, or a series of massive clouds, each one several light-years wide, of interstellar medium. With our Sun, we are currently are in a bubble where multiple supernovas blew up. The extent of the X-rays in a astronomical object is usually smaller than other radiations because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light, for example. The Local Interstellar Cloud could hold iron-60 particles, created by stellar explosions over the last few million years as our solar system traveled there during the last 40,000-50,000 years. Clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN), supernova remnants or x-ray binary stars are extremely hot hence they emit x-ray radiation

Phenomenon, ObjectTemperature (in ° F)Temperature (in ° C)
The Absolute Zero, or 0° K-459.67° F-273.15° C

The background microwave radiation-459.49° F-273.05° C
The Boomerang planetary nebula, the coldest known object in the Universe due to a dying star emitting lots of gas in a process similar to how refrigerators work-458° F-272° C
the inside of Hermite Crater on the Moon-415°F-248°C
The cloud where a star is forming, about 50,000 years after the beginning of the formation-400° F-240° C
Permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's South poleless than -397° Fless than -236° C
Uranus-371° F-222° C
Pluto-300°F-184°C
Surface of Europe, a icy satellite of Jupiter-300° F-182° C
Saturn-220° F-140° C

Mars-85° F-65° C
Moon-4° F-20° C
The Earth59° F15° C
Mercury333° F167° C
Venus867° F464° C

Outer core of the Earth6,700° F3,700° C
Inner core of the Earth7,800° F4,300° C
The surface of the Sun10,400° F5,760° C

A lightning bolt60,000° F33,000° C
A white dwarf135,000° F75,000° C

The gas in a nova's remnant1,800,000° F1,000,000° C

The core of the Sun27 million of degree F15 million of degrees C
The cloudy remnant of a supernova (SRN)100 millions of degree F55 million of degree C
Strong interactions between galaxies in dense clusters causing the material there to be heated to extremely high temperatures100 millions of degree F55 million of degree C

A supernova exploding100 billions of degree F55.6 billions of degree C

The primordial soup of the Big Banga few trillions of degree Fa few thousands of billions of degree C

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site 'Amateur Astronomy,' http://stars5.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 5/17/2018. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
Free Web Hosting