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mfb- t1_jcsfrx5 wrote

The surrounding is often empty space which has a very low energy density and temperature, and its energy density and temperature keep decreasing as the universe expands. Dumping some energy into empty space isn't going to make a difference for space, but it means your object loses energy.

Total energy is not conserved in an expanding universe, by the way, but that's a smaller effect than the larger volume over which the energy is distributed.

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