Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Do People Explode in the Vacuum of Space?







When a human goes into space, what happens to them? Do they explode, freeze, or does nothing happen at all.

According to NASA, You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen and you accumulate injuries. After about one or two minutes, you die from lack of oxygen and decompression, which is the gradual reduction in atmospheric pressure. The limits of what happens to humans in the vacuum of space aren’t really known. Even though the limits of what happens to humans in the vacuum of space aren’t really known, what happens to certain animals is known.

According to the Effect of Rapid Decompression and Associated Hypoxic Phenomena in Euthanasia of animals : A Review , dogs when put into the vacuum of space did not explode. When entered in to the vacuum of space, the dogs, which were anesthetized, severed many respiratory problems and other complications, of which involved problems with decompression.


So, in fact, according to NASA and Tvtropes, people don’t explode in the vacuum of space. Also, you don’t explode because your skin has enough strength, so that you won’t burst.

Links:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExplosiveDecompression http://cousin.pascal1.free.fr/AVMA%20etude%20decom.pdf http://www.atmos.uah.edu/~sundar/images/partners/nasa.jpg http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/astronaut-free-flight-above-earth.jpg

6 comments:

SmileyFace123 said...

I thought that people, if they went to far into space, would be crushed to death by the strength of the atmosphere. But it's cool that you don't. And I think it's really sad that they would send dogs into outer space to test if it works on dogs too!! :'(

EMeaghann said...

i also thought that if people went into the vacuum of space, their blood would boil, but its intresting to know that they will actually freeze! I knew that they would loose oxygen, but i didnt know they would freeze! But i agree that its sad that they send dogs into outer space to test and see if it works on them. I think that is just crule.

Laxrox said...

That's interesting because I heard you froze from the outside in and boiled from the inside out. I wanna know how they got permission to send dogs into space like that.

Fork said...

this is a very interesting myth, i have always been interested in space and the effects it could potentialy hae on the human body. I have always heard that your body will get crushed by the atmosphere and it;s cool to know that, that wouldn't happen.

SmileyFace123 said...

I've never heard that you would boil from the inside out but I thought that is what would happen. Not the other way around.

Kylie(: said...

Very interesting. I too thought going into space to far would get you squash you like a pea by the weight of the atmosphere. But freezing blood? This is a really fascinating topic! I disagree greatly with sending dogs into space. Is that even legal?