Saturday, December 02, 2006

Deep. (Space)

Ever wonder what would happen to the guy pushed out of the space station without a spacesuit on?
Contrary to popular belief, a person suddenly exposed to the vacuum would not explode, freeze to death, or die from boiling blood, but would take a short while to die by asphyxiation (suffocation). Air would immediately leave the lungs due to the enormous pressure gradient, and so any dissolved oxygen in the blood would empty into the lungs to try to equalise the partial pressure gradient. Once the deoxygenated blood arrived at the brain, death would quickly follow. Water vapor would also rapidly evaporate off from exposed areas such as the lungs and cornea of the eye, cooling the body.

Cool!

From Wikipedia

5 comments:

  1. Thanks Cliff, just joking that is pretty cool.

    Trev

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  2. Interesting. It seems so obvious now. Suffocation, of course! Somewhere along the line I was duped into believing I would explode in the vacuum of space.

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  3. I know I`ll sleep better tonight!! Mom

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  4. That picture on your sidebar looks like you were pushed into the vacuum of space. ... :)

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  5. How do they know that?

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