What exactly is the vacuum in outer space?
Im really getting into astronomy now and I still dont understand the "vacuum of space". I hear that if you were to go outside in space without a space suit, you would die (not because you cant breathe, but because of the "vacuum".) What exactly does this vacuum do? What are its effects on the human body? Is it like an actual vacuum that we use here on earth?
Thanks for your time.
A vacuum is an area of lesser pressure. This lesser pressure exists because there are fewer particles in a given amount of space. This applies equally to a vacuum here on Earth or some place far out in space.
Contrary to common sense, vacuum is not negative pressure. We here on Earth live in a slightly pressurized environment. That is, we live under a layer of air held to the Earth by gravity. Air does not weigh a lot and that’s why you can walk under under miles of air pushing down on you. The figure is 14.7 pounds per square inch.
14.7 pounds per square inch means that if you were to draw a square on the ground that is one inch on each side and then you took all the air directly above it in a little one-inch square tube and ran it all the way up to "outer space", this column of air would weigh just 14.7 pounds.
In outer space, particles of matter are so few and far between that your body would not have the usual amount of pressure on its outside. So you might begin to expand a bit. However, any existing pressure inside your body would dissipate rather quickly. Then you would really be hurting… but you would likely not explode as you might think. Nonetheless, don’t do as the Soviets used to do and go into space without space suits. They lost three cosmonauts that way; the air in their ship leaked out and they died.
a vacuum is a vacuum, no matter where it is. The old saying "nature abhors a vacuum" means that anything nearby will try to fill the vacuum. A lot of things would happen to you if you lost your space suit. You’d probably swell up (trying to fill the vacuum) You’d certainly die.
A vacuum is literally defined as "nothing"…which isn’t very helpful, unfortunately. But that is what it is…it isn’t! It’s so complicated to understand the important of something that science proves isn’t there, so don’t worry if it confuses you.
What I think you are struggling with is the concept of vacuum in space. What is going on is that gravity attracts matter and because you have solid bodies, they have relatively high gravity which attracts stuff to the body, like the planets. So you are left with space that has few amounts of matter, a few atoms per cubic centimeter. So this space has a lack of matter, a vacuum, and we are designed to live on a planet which has a lot of matter, air, that is attracted to the planet by its high gravity field. So in space we would not have all the weight of the atmosphere pressing upon our bodies and things happen in a vacuum that are not good for our bodies. There are other things going on in space because high energy particles move freely through space where they are absorbed to a large degree by our atmosphere, which protects us you know, and so those particles, radiation, can do bad things to our bodies.
A "vacuum" is a defined space that has little or no matter in it.
Here on earth, when we remove the air from a space (like, say, a gallon jug. we remove MOST of the air from INSIDE the jug. Because o this, there is less AIR PRESSURE inside the jug than outside. The greater air pressure outside the jug cause the jug to collapse.
But even so, there is OME air left in the jug. Just a tiny bit, but still some.
As you travel from the surface of the earth "upwards" the air gets thinner and thinner. There is less air the higher you go/ But even at the heights the space shuttle travels (about 200 miles) there is SOME air — but not enough to breath.
In deep space — the "emptiness" between galaxies — is an almost pure vacuum. in "deep space" there is estimate to be about three hydrogen ATOMs per cubic meter of space.
Not, your body needs air to breath, and it gives off carbon dioxide. There are also certain gasses, like nitrogen, "infused" in your blood.
If you body was exposed to the almost complete vacuum of space, the first this that you would notice is that the air in your lungs would explode out of your mouth and nose. Any air that you might have swallowed while eating, or gases produced by digestion would also explode your stomach and intestines.
The infused gasses in your blood and other organs would also start to expand. This would cause nitrogen bubbles in your blood and joints, like a very bad case of "the bends" like a scuba diver might get. it is almost certain that one of the bubble would reach your heart, exploding it, if the exploding lungs didn’t kill you first.
Gases are infused all over your body. All of your internal organs would start to bubble up, including your skin.
Now, this also assume that you are close enough to a sun to be warmed by it. if you were in truly deep space, the temperature is almost absolute zero. So not only would you bubble up and explode, you would then freeze solid.
It seems like you would end up looking like a giant cherry snowball!
Earths atmosphere is very dense this is because the gravity of earth keeps the air molecules stationary around it and we are built for it too but in space there is literally nothing, nothing at all!.for eg now if your lungs has nothing at all, it will suck air into it fast. when you expand your lungs it sucks air into it because of diffusion(particles move from high concentration to low concentration), similarly space has no concentration at all. if a person is out in space with no special suit, all the air from his lungs would be sucked out soo hard the his internal organs will get damaged.
Im no expert but i would have thought the universe expanding would be the cause of the actual vacuum?
If you were exposed to it you’d be turned inside out instantly, just not in one piece!
Look up Dirac aether.