system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What would happen and what would I feel, if I was exposed to a temperature near absolute zero?
gpt
The answer is: it depends.

If you're unprotected in deep space in a vacuum, that's near absolute zero. If we ignore the other effects of being in a vacuum (such as your imminent death by asphyxiation, or the cooling produced by fluids boiling off), the temperature is relatively insignificant since heat loss would not be particularly high due to the insulating properties of a vacuum.

If you're interacting with an object (which we'll assume is insulated from the environment), then the specific heat capacity and the mass of the object will determine the outcome. However, unless you're dealing with a very small mass and/or a substance with a very low SHC, it probably won't make much difference in practical terms. Edit: just to clarify, the thermal conductivity of the object is also important in this. /edit

So, assuming we're dealing with a respectable quantity of a substance with a reasonable or high SHC such as water-ice, it's going to suck a lot of heat out of you.

Roughly speaking, the rate of heat transfer is directly proportional to the temperature difference. Now if you've ever got an ice cube out of a cold freezer (~-15C), you'll know that the tissue in contact with it will get cold very quickly, and that's with a temperature difference of ~50C. If you had an ice cube at near absolute zero, that's a difference of ~310C, about 6 times as much!

So exposed tissue would rapidly flash-freeze. Even if the amount of tissue flash-frozen isn't lethal by itself, it's quite possible that the stress of exposure will lead to cardiac arrest, which is a significant danger if you're suddenly immersed cold water or something. Otherwise you'll get the same symptoms as deep stages of frostbite.