Do you decompose in space?

[Geronimo]

The corpse would freeze slowly due to the insulating effect of the vacuum (a vacuum is a fine insulator, this is why a partial vacuum is used in the lining of a thermos bottle). Internal anaerobic bacteria would almost immediately start decomposing the body after death at least until all the surrounding tissue had frozen. If the body wasn't a great deal farther from the sun than the Earth is then sunlight would have a significant effect as well. If the body had very little rotation, the entire corpse might freeze starting at the dark side but the sunlit side would bake and sublimate almost all moisture giving a nice freeze dried effect. If the corpse had a good rotation rate freezing might not ever occur but baking and drying out certainly would given enough hours exposure.

On a related note, exposure to hard vacuum doesnt cause much physical trauma to the bodies of most animals. If the creature attempted to hold its breath there would be some painful damage resulting from the futile effort but *not* any kind of explosion. If they did not hold their breath then they would fairly quickly pass out as the oxygen in their bloodstream rapidly was released into their lungs to be lost to the vacuum of space. However there would be almost no other damage and very little temperature effect even if the 'temperature' was near 3 degrees K. (temperature doesn't really mean all that much in a vacuum or near vacuum anyway). A person who didn't attempt to hold their breath would pass out probably in less than a minute and could be spared brain damage if returned to breathable atmosphere in about 5 minutes. Damage from radiation from the sun or whatever would probably be low unless there was unusual circumstances (you are in the earths radiation belts, the sun is particularily active, you are completely naked). Skin exposed to sunlight unfiltered by earths atmosphere would be badly sunburned quite quickly and the radiation dose when outside of both the earths magnetosphere and it's atmosphere would probably give you an unhealthy dose of hard radiation but it would probably take more than brief exposure to really mess you up with radiation poisoning.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by GePap
No bacteria earthly bacteria could survive the intense, totally unshielded cosmic radiation, plus the temp is only a few degrees above absolute zero.

Earthly bacteria survived on the moon for at least 3 years.

[Az]

Re: Do you decompose in space?

No I don't decompose in space. I am sitting safely on the ground, thank you very much.
















........I'll be leaving now.......

[BustaMike]

So you guys are telling me that your eyes wouldn't pop right out? No explosions at all. What fun is that?

[notyoueither]

Dying in space is no fun, because no one can hear you scream.

[Zero]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Dying in space is no fun, because no one can hear you scream.

fun for who?

[JohnT]

Here, Albert, this was already asked at The Straight Dope. I wouldn't reply to the SD thread as it is over 2 years old and they don't like resurrections.

[The Mad Monk]

The Paranoia RPG had a great table for determining what happened when you were 'spaced'. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Narz]

Has anyone actually died in space? Not blown up like in the Challanger but actually somehow been sucked out of a spacecraft into the vacume?

[Wtiberon]

No one has died in space that we know of... the Soviet Union may have had some unreported accidents that were "swept" under the carpet.

From the now extinct page http://medlib/jsc.nasa.gov/intro/vacuum.html:

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts -- and animal experiments confirm -- that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.

Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.

At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) they had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in '65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil.

Aviation Week and Space Technology (02/13/95) printed a letter by Leonard Gordon which reported another vacuum-packed anecdote:

"The experiment of exposing an unpressurized hand to near vacuum for a significant time while the pilot went about his business occurred in real life on Aug. 16, 1960. Joe Kittinger, during his ascent to 102,800 ft (19.5 miles) in an open gondola, lost pressurization of his right hand. He decided to continue the mission, and the hand became painful and useless as you would expect. However, once back to lower altitudes following his record-breaking parachute jump, the hand returned to normal."


A body drifting in space would probably be in a desiccated state similar to that of the mummified bodies people sometimes find in the desert. In space there is no humidity and no microorganisms which, in combination, cause decomposition of human tissue on Earth. The very low temperatures in space would provide further protection for tissue-unless the body were close to the sun, in which case the intense radiation would incinerate it. Therefore, an unsuited human body in space would likely remain recognizable for a long while, although there would be extreme drying because moisture from the body would escape readily into the vacuum. Over time, it is likely that micro-meteors would strike the body. A rock the size of a grain of sand would hit with the force of a bullet; enough hits and the body would disintegrate. Another potential degrading factor is exposure to high levels of radiation and energetic subatomic particles.

[vovan]

Originally posted by Wtiberon
No one has died in space that we know of... the Soviet Union may have had some unreported accidents that were "swept" under the carpet.

Actually, there was a well-reported accident. It was when some cosmenauts were leaving Mir back in the days, and it was all good at first, but when they landed, they were dead. The problem was that the capsules that were used to ship the people home was made very small, so that they would be easier to send to the orbit. As such, they didn't have enough space for the people to wear scaphandres. (I don't even know if that's a word - space suits I guess is what you call 'em.) So, as they were leaving, the corridor that they went through didn't close properly, and the valve leaked air to the outside. Sure enough, by the time they were on earth, they suffocated...

Originally posted by Wtiberon
From the now extinct page http://medlib/jsc.nasa.gov/intro/vacuum.html:

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury.

I have a very hard time believing that... Surely, if you don't hold your breath, and all the air is basically sucked out of the lungs, your rib cage would collapse.

[The Mad Monk]

Why? There's no external pressure to force such a collapse.

[Wtiberon]

Originally posted by vovansim


Actually, there was a well-reported accident. It was when some cosmenauts were leaving Mir back in the days, and it was all good at first, but when they landed, they were dead. The problem was that the capsules that were used to ship the people home was made very small, so that they would be easier to send to the orbit. As such, they didn't have enough space for the people to wear scaphandres. (I don't even know if that's a word - space suits I guess is what you call 'em.) So, as they were leaving, the corridor that they went through didn't close properly, and the valve leaked air to the outside. Sure enough, by the time they were on earth, they suffocated...

I meant that a human that was left adrift in space which was the point of the thread

I have a very hard time believing that... Surely, if you don't hold your breath, and all the air is basically sucked out of the lungs, your rib cage would collapse.

Perhaps you should research the subject to convince your self since I doubt I could do it here.

Your lungs are actually vacuums themselves which is how you are able to breath so a vacuum could not callapse your lungs and ribcage.

[vovan]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Why? There's no external pressure to force such a collapse.

Hmmm.... That's a good point actually.... Yeah, I guess you are right.

But I still am not sure. Blood pressure is pretty high, so while a hand may be able to sustain it, as described in that article, I'm thinking eyes would burst. I mean, surely eyes can't sustain such a strong internal pressure... Then again, there probably isn't that much blood in them any way... Now, I'm confused. I guess we'll never know untill somebody is actually thrown out of a space shuttle.

[vovan]

I found the page you were quoting, Wtiberon...

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

Souds reasonably reliable...

The saliva on your tongue might boil.