this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/44126927

Goldilocks

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[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 72 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

If that blows your mind then think about this: As the universe expanded after the Big Bang, it cooled from unimaginably high temperatures. In principle, this suggest that there could have been a very short window much later, tens of millions of years after the Big Bang, when the background temperature of the entire universe was capable of sustaining life everywhere. Some physicists have suggested this might have created a brief, universe-wide “habitable epoch,” though this remains theoretical.

I'm not an expert, so this is probably not a muture understanding, but it's cool to imagine a universe where life was incredibly abundant.

Edit: I got this idea from a video, and I found it! Please transfer all criticism of my comment to this video.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

but it’s cool to imagine a universe where life was incredibly abundant

There was probably nothing but helium, hydrogen and a tiny bit of lithium at that period.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Those are some of the best elements though. 

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

They surely are popular...

[–] kozy138@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 month ago

Top 3 probably

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, season 8 of helium is just chef's kiss.

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[–] engywook@programming.dev 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Interesting theory, I'd never heard of it before. All of the sudden, "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away", actually seems plausible (although this theory looks like it came well after SW in 2014).

The actual paper about it: https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/habitable.pdf

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

More weird to me is that, at some point before the first stars, the entire universe glowed through the entire rainbow, so there is a moment when, were you to travel back in time, the entire universe would glow blindingly green.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It probably would never appear green, due to the black-body radiation distribution. When the peak is at green, it just looks like white to us. Our sun is kinda a "green" star due to this

But it would go from blue to white to red. Similar colour progression that we can find in the distribution of stars

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Indeed! Good point! For some reason, I was under the impression that the CMB was monochromatic (corresponding to a red shifted equivalent of the precise energy of W and Z boson annihilation to produce photons). Thanks!!

[–] 8baanknexer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm skeptical of this. Life doesn't just need a certain temperature, it needs to convert lower entropy energy to higher entropy. A uniform environment temperature does not provide any usable energy. You would still need a star or some other energy source.

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 54 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Goldilocks space is like "my breath immediately turns solid in the shade and my body is turning to charcoal in the direct sunlight"

You need a giant buffer of atmosphere to help average the temperature a bit. Maybe some kind of large rock with a dense atmosphere?

[–] MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 month ago (4 children)

That or a giant space turtle with elephants holding a flatten rock on it's back.

[–] dwemthy@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

A strong thaumic field slows down the sunlight too. Doesn't change the heat but it's nice to see sunrise pour across the landscape like honey

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But what's holding up the elephants?

[–] C8r9VwDUTeY3ZufQRYvq@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago (5 children)

WRONG! It is turtles actually. It's elephants alternating with turtles (and then every tenth level is capybaras) all the way down.

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

If you go that way you gotta have at least 8 colors.

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[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 33 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Vacuum doesn't have a temperature~

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But you will if you sit in a vacuum for a while without a radiation source nearby, and it will be quite low.

[–] Mesophar@pawb.social 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Are you dissipating heat in a vacuum, though? Pressure shenanigans aside, would someone's body heat slowly, continually build up, or would they freeze?

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

If you could somehow prevent yourself from dying due to lack of pressure, without blocking heat, you would radiate about 650W more than you generate.

That's using the Stefan Boltzmann law, at normal body temp, perfect blackbody and 1.5m2 of skin. (~ 750 Watt) And then assuming 2000kcal a day (~100W)

You'd cool down pretty quickly.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So how long do I have? Also, if you guys could hurry with the answer...?

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I can't really find a good number for how cold you can get and not die, so let's say 20 degrees. That gives 16 degrees to lose.

Meat has a specific heat of about 3.5kJ per kilo per degree, so say you weigh 70kg, that's about 4 million joules to lose before you die.

At 650 joules per second, you've got slightly over 10 minutes. Of course, shivering will burn more calories and stuff, and the panic of impending death will likely stretch it a few more.

I didn't include clothes, because then the maths would make me cry.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your skin isn't at core temp tho, so the loss rate should be lower I think

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

At that point, you'll have to calculate the heat transport of the human body, and answer questions like "how long can a person live with frozen skin" and other fun questions I'm not equipped to answer.

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[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 15 points 1 month ago

Heat buildup is actually a problem in space, yeah. You need heat sinks on long term space flights.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

You constantly radiate heat. The warmer you are, the faster you radiate it away. In space this is the primary way you lose heat.

In your living room you are constantly bombarded by radiated heat from all the objects that surround you, even if they're just at room temperature, which lessens the effect. In space, not so much.

Someone who knows better might chime in, but as far as I know the trope of rapidly freezing out in space is exaggerated. You would definitely freeze eventually, but perhaps not as dramatically fast as portrayed in The Guardians of The Galaxy for example.

[–] craftrabbit@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Have you ever looked up at a clear summer night sky? Your face will feel cold. Colder than when looking at the ground. That's because there's not as much stuff radiating heat at you up there.

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[–] tensorpudding@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is not completely correct though. It is our atmosphere/albedo/geological and natural processes that help maintain consistently livable temperatures, not just living in the habitable zone. No atmosphere? We'd be like the Moon, where it is too hot in sunlight and too cold in shade despite being similarly far from the sun as Earth.

[–] sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Also its not true that space is "very very cold".

If you are in space wearing space suite that doesn't radiate heat properly, you could die from the excessive heat. Once dead your body stops producing heat and the existing heat eventually radiate away and your body freeze.

Space is neither hot or cold because these are property of matter. Since space has very little atoms, it technically has no temperature.

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[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

The dark side of your body in space is freezing cold while the light side gets hot. You really need to rotate to get that even crispy layer.

[–] J92@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I know its memes, but the astronaut tim peake discussed the space suits on No Such Thing As A Fish where he said that the whole get-up is like 16+ layers thick, and the only heating inside is for your fingertips, so you dont lose fine motor function. He said you can be sitting working on a panel outside the station, with one hand facing the sun and one hand facing the shade, and the delta-T of your two hands could be something like 500°C.

Maaaaadness! (It's been a while since I listened to this episode, my memory of numbers could be skewed.)

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Difference in temperature.

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[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

Not anymore, there's a blanket

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Space isn't cold. It isn't hot either.

[–] genuineparts 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Sun is a mass of incandescent gas, A giant nuclear furnace.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees 🎵

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