Cold and loneliness

D. Anton

Absolute zero, also called Kelvin zero, occurs when the particles that make up matter do not have any motion. Measured in degrees centigrade, 0 Kelvin takes place at -273.15 (degrees below zero).

The average temperature on the Earth's surface is 287 degrees Kelvin or 14 degrees Celsius above zero. The average temperature on the surface of Mars is 213 degrees Kelvin or minus 60 degrees Celsius. Pluto, which is much further away, shows very low temperatures of 44 Kelvin or 229 degrees Celsius below zero.

The New Horizons spacecraft that was sent to Pluto had to travel enormous distances. In them, without internal heating systems, the temperature of the ship would have dropped to 270 degrees Celsius below zero, or approximately 3 degrees above absolute 0.

So interplanetary space is cold, VERY COLD.

But in addition to being cold, it is a fundamentally empty space, VERY EMPTY. A spacecraft like New Horizons destined for the planet Pluto (distant about 6,000 million km from Earth) traveled 9 years (yes, more than 3,300 days) at a speed of 30,000 to 15,000 kilometers per hour, without encountering any particle of visible dimensions . Only the loneliness of space. THE GREAT SOLITUDE OF SPACE.

It only came to Pluto because it was headed in that direction. In any other direction, it would have long followed interstellar space.

But the New Horizons story didn't end there.

From Pluto, the probe was redirected towards a small asteroid a hundred kilometers in diameter distant about 2 billion kilometers from Pluto, which it will reach in about three more years, continuing its march through empty space.

Cold and empty. The greatest of solitudes. Only the faint light of distant stars.

Incomprehensible for us, little human beings, on this hospitable planet, accompanied only by ourselves.

Cold and lonely. This is the universe.