…a person is in outer space without a space suit? I always thought that since space is a vacuum, the person would implode. But every time something like that happens on TV or in books (and I know they aren’t the most reliable sources of information), the person just sort of drifts along. What really happens?
Just a WAG, but I’d say that with 14.7 psi internal pressure and 0 psi external pressure, You’d pop like a cheap balloon (except messier). I think they just float along in the stories because it’d be really boring if the hero became a gelatinous mass just before the climatic ending.
Cecil did a column on it, and there have been several threads, all of which I’m too lazy to look up for you. IIRC, your fluids would boil, but explosion is a bit overdramatic. As to why the movie effects are so cheap? Well, that’s why. They’re cheap.
You would freeze-dry, essentially. You would only ‘pop’ if your lungs were full and you didn’t exhale. Your ears would pop, your eyes would pop, but the rest of you would become a cold, dry mummy. You’d die of suffocation.
Actually, you would die first of your blood boiling you to death. You’d literally have a heart of ice.
Also, I assume smilla meant explode, not implode. Unless your body had negative pressure in it, there would be no way you’d implode in a vacuum.
Indeed he did. Behold http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_147.html
For a comprehensive look try this NASA page, but the basic answer is: 'not much, at least for a little while."
Actually, not for a rather long time. In space the only way to get rid of excess heat is to radiate it away, instead of convection.
Some of your thinner capilaries would burst from the lack of pressure. Imagine having a hickey all over your body. But, assuming you didn’t hold your breath, you wouldn’t explode or anything.
Thanks for the responses. It’s such a relief to know that on the offchance that I may be in space with protective gear, I may actually survive.