# What happens when... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329 "2000-10-25T23:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilla)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/1 "2000-10-25T23:11:49Z")
…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? ---
**Author:** ![NeePravda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NeePravda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeePravda)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/2 "2000-10-25T23:46:50Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/3 "2000-10-25T23:59:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/4 "2000-10-26T00:10:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/5 "2000-10-26T00:58:36Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/6 "2000-10-26T01:07:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Cecil did a column on it… Indeed he did. Behold [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_147.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_147.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ankh\_Too](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Ankh\_Too](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ankh_Too)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/7 "2000-10-26T01:11:40Z")
For a comprehensive look try this [NASA page](http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html), but the basic answer is: 'not much, at least for a little while." > [@](#): > > _source: [Human Body in a Vacuum](http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.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.** > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Enderw:23_ > **You’d literally have a heart of ice.** 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. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/8 "2000-10-26T03:08:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![smilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilla)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when/38329/9 "2000-10-26T21:18:33Z")
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.