this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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You're talking about conduction. I'm talking about radiation.
Sure, but radiation acts extremely slowly in the scenario of a person in the vacuum of space.
Yes it is. But it is the main way by which things cool down in space.
That's how satellite electronics are cooled down. They have large heat sinks that slowly radiate heat away.
And those heat sinks are large because at the low temperatures involved, radiation is not an efficient way to shed heat.
I thought we were talking about a person in the vacuum of space.
A human body will also eventually freeze in space. The same physics apply. It's just not going to happen fast.
I just did the maths in another post. It's surprisingly fast! 10 minutes till you die, under 20 till you freeze. Assuming perfect heat conduction and no increased energy generation from shivering or panicking, which probably won't make much of a difference.
I presume a person would curl up into a ball to preserve heat which would reduce the effective skin surface area. But that is still quite fast
I did the maths three times, because I was sure I got it wrong, but on Earth you get a LOT of energy from the radiation of stuff around you. I never really thought about that.