In space, no-one can hear you scream.

[thecolonist]

What actually happens to you if you are exposed to a vacuum?

I don’t mean space, like in orbit around Earth where you’d probably boil or freeze. The question I’m asking, I suppose, is do we really explode?

[Popup]

*Originally posted by thecolonist *
**What actually happens to you if you are exposed to a vacuum?
**

What’s the first thing to do if you have a question?
Ask Cecil!
If you were thrown into the vacuum of space with no space suit, would you explode?

Death would not be instantaneous. It’s believed you’d have 10-15 seconds of “useful consciousness” and it’d be several minutes before you’d die. If you were rescued within that time there’s a decent chance you’d survive. Research with chimps and monkeys suggests that if you were exposed to a virtual vacuum for less than 90-120 seconds you might not suffer any permanent damage.

Second thing?
Search the Board:
exposure to outer space

And if that fails?
Google:
How would the unprotected human body react to the vacuum of outer space?

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.

Read both the articles and the thread, as they give a few different viewpoints and quote some remarkable incidents. (It can be messy, but it doesn’t have to)

[SPOOFE]

C’mon, TC, you can at least give the guy a synopsis from those links. This is the Straight Dope, after all, not the Straight Google.

Anyway, Mr. Colonist, it seems that the vacuum itself wouldn’t cause a body to explode (it’s strong enough to resist the expanding liquids and gasses inside), but the sudden rush of air caused by explosive decompression can cause a body to be torn to shreds.

[clayton_e]

Yeah, I heard how you explode, boil, freeze, etc…

[tronvillain]

I assume SPOOFE is referring to something along these lines:

That said, there are circumstances involving explosive decompression in which your body might be torn to bits. This would result not from the exposure to a vacuum per se but from injuries caused by the accompanying air blast. I have here a medical journal article about a case of explosive decompression that killed four divers. (They went from high pressure to normal rather than normal to vacuum, but same idea.)

The bodies of three of the dead men were outwardly normal. The fourth man, however, was forced through a narrow hatch by the rush of escaping air and his body, to be blunt, was reduced to pot roast. Naturally, the authors of the article felt obliged to include pictures, including a close-up of what was left of the face. You might show them to your bozo friends next time they’re chattering about blown up bodies.

[Popup]

*Originally posted by SPOOFE *
**C’mon, TC, you can at least give the guy a synopsis from those links. This is the Straight Dope, after all, not the Straight Google.
**

Yes, re-reading my post I realise that my tone might seem harsh. And I hadn’t noted that Mr Colonist is a relative newcomer to our favourite hang-out.

So, let’s try to be friends!
Hello and Welcome to the SDMB, thecolonist! Your questions have been answered before, by none less than the Master, Cecil Adams. There have also been threads on the subject here before.
The general conclusion has been that vacuum is in itself not fatal, and a fit person should survuve about a minute with no major damage - but I’m not volunteering. The sudden loss of pressure, however, might cause substantial damage.

[thecolonist]

Sorry, I’m new. Deh.

[RealityChuck]

Yeah, I heard how you explode, boil, freeze, etc…

The basis for that is the fact that, the lower the pressure, the lower the temperature required to boil water. Your body temperature is greater than the boiling point in a vacuum. Hence the argument that your blood would boil.

The problem is that your bloodstream isn’t in the vacuum. The veins and arteries are a closed system and would remain at the usual pressure – too high to boil.

However, if you got a cut in a vaccum, the blood at the cut would boil off.