# Corpse in the sun - would it tan or burn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674 "2003-07-20T01:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrLiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DrLiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrLiver)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/1 "2003-07-20T01:38:12Z")
Unfortunatly I don’t have a corpse to experiment so I come here to ask: Do you need to be alive to tan or would a dead corpse in the sun tan? Just out of morbid curiosity… cheers ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/2 "2003-07-20T01:44:31Z")
Nei+her, I wouldn’+ +hink… a bodie makes melanin in response +o some+hing (UV raies, maiebe?)… and sunburning hmm I don’+ know. I+ migh+ burn, bu+ I don’+ +hink i+ would burn. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/3 "2003-07-20T01:50:03Z")
I have no idea, but now I want to know the answer, too. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/4 "2003-07-20T02:00:26Z")
Only living tissue tans. This does not apply to the separate process of “tanning” leather. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/5 "2003-07-20T02:26:18Z")
From lmuch experince (muffled insane laughter) a corpse in the sun goes black. ---
**Author:** ![Fernmeldetruppe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fernmeldetruppe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fernmeldetruppe)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/6 "2003-07-20T03:55:54Z")
For what it is worth: From the Arizona Republic: [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0717border17.html](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0717border17.html) (article is about people crossing from Mexico to the US) The woman’s body was discovered under a paloverde tree in an area so remote that it was located using satellite coordinates. She died less than 24 hours earlier; her arms and back were covered in second-degree burns. She wore hip-hugger jeans and was face up, her head resting on a thick, black braid of hair. Investigators found a worn envelope with photos of a girl, with a strikingly similar black braid, poised primly in a school uniform. The woman also carried a journal, toothpaste and running shoes. “It’s really, really sad,” said Karin Neuhaus, a Tohono O’odham police detective. “I think the heat literally just cooked her.” ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/7 "2003-07-20T05:34:34Z")
Just decompose… ---
**Author:** ![Bandanaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bandanaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bandanaman)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/8 "2003-07-20T05:39:53Z")
A friend of mine’s elderly mother passed away while gardening, and the side of her face was burned. She’d been dead a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![syjstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@syjstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syjstr)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/9 "2003-07-20T14:12:40Z")
When I was In Desert Storm in 1990, I saw many dead Iraqi’s bodies that had been baking in the sun for a good month. What I saw was that the skin tended to turn leathery and bloat from internal gases till the skin actually ripped at the breaking point. The skin was very brown or tanned in color. Some bodies were also very blackened as to be charred in different spots on the body mostly at the joints. I believed this only to be a level of decomposition. Many environmental factors will determine the outcome of the Sun’s effect on dead bodies. Hope this helps you! ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/10 "2003-07-21T00:18:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chaoticdonkey \* > \*\*Nei+her, I wouldn’+ +hink… a bodie makes melanin in response +o some+hing (UV raies, maiebe?)… and sunburning hmm I don’+ know. I+ migh+ burn, bu+ I don’+ +hink i+ would burn. \*\* Could you repeat that in Latin?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/11 "2003-07-21T00:29:37Z")
When I read the OP, I tought that: 1 there is no oxygen in the sun, so the corpse could not burn. 2 tanning would not have enought time before the nuclear fusion vaporizes/ plasmatizes the body 3 how the F would you get a coprse into the sun in the 1st place. No really that’s what I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/12 "2003-07-21T00:32:49Z")
Wouldn’t they dry out, like mummies? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/13 "2003-07-21T00:39:37Z")
btw, if anybody is confused by \*\*chaoticdonkey \*\*'s posts, it is because he/she is having keyboard trouble. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tir\_Tinuviel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corpse-in-the-sun-would-it-tan-or-burn/189674/14 "2003-07-21T16:03:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > \*\*Only living tissue tans. This does not apply to the separate process of “tanning” leather. \*\* Damn… there’s goes my desperately witty and amusing pun. Poo! 🙂