Hmm, is it because vacuum acts essentially like an insulator? I’m thinking this because, from what I remember about high-school thermodynamics, heat needs to “jump” from matter to matter, and there’s not a relevant quantity of matter in a vacuum to act as a heat absorber, like air does over here, right?:-?
I’m genuinely asking, I’m sure I have brain rot from watching too many sci-fi movies…
I’m not sure that I’ll get the English terms wrong but basically heat can move in three ways:
By convection, aka liquids and gases moving around when theire heated. Obviously this doesn’t happen in space
By conduction, a hot thing thouches a cold one and heat transfers from hot to cold. And, this neither works in space
By radiaton. Hot objects radiate heat as electro magnetic waves (ie ligth). This is the only one that works in a vacuum and this process is rather slow. Also this results I the weird phenomenon that good looking people cool down faster in space since their hoter. Therefore we should only recruit bad looking astronauts, but no one seems to have figured that out
Also, guess I missed my mark, would’ve been the ideal astronaut based on this! Does being dumb also help help? I mean, less going on up in the ol’ noggin, thinking energy is transferred slower that way:))) Or that I use less, which would make me fuel-efficient!=))))
It’s exactly what the other commenter said, to transfer heat efficiently you need something else to transfer it to. In a vacuum, you only lose energy by radiation. Therefore on a spaceship you’re actually in greater danger of overheating than freezing to death.
Another counterintuitive thing that stems from this is that space vacuum isn’t even, strictly speaking, cold. The few and far between particles of space dust and gas can have very high energy flying by, at least until they hit something. It’s only cold when you average out over all the empty space.
Huh, that’s really interesting! Yeah, given all of these factors, I would imagine that absolute vacuum would be… well, nothing in terms of cold or hot:-? Wow, that’s a huge paradigm shift, I shoud dare to be stupid online more often, I’m learning more from this thread than I would have expected!
No, that doesn’t happen. The bends is worse because you can go from multiple atmospheres of pressure to just 1. The worst space can get is from 1 atm to 0 atm.
You don’t really freeze because in a vacuum you lose heat very slowly. You’d suffocate long before that. Or, as previously mentioned, go pop
Hmm, is it because vacuum acts essentially like an insulator? I’m thinking this because, from what I remember about high-school thermodynamics, heat needs to “jump” from matter to matter, and there’s not a relevant quantity of matter in a vacuum to act as a heat absorber, like air does over here, right?:-?
I’m genuinely asking, I’m sure I have brain rot from watching too many sci-fi movies…
I’m not sure that I’ll get the English terms wrong but basically heat can move in three ways:
Thank you, this makes a lot of sense!
Also, guess I missed my mark, would’ve been the ideal astronaut based on this! Does being dumb also help help? I mean, less going on up in the ol’ noggin, thinking energy is transferred slower that way:))) Or that I use less, which would make me fuel-efficient!=))))
Radiation will still transfer heat. But that will be relatively slow. This image gives a quick overview of the ways heat may be transfered.
Yep, this is very clear, thank you! Visual aides are OP, I swear!
It’s exactly what the other commenter said, to transfer heat efficiently you need something else to transfer it to. In a vacuum, you only lose energy by radiation. Therefore on a spaceship you’re actually in greater danger of overheating than freezing to death.
Another counterintuitive thing that stems from this is that space vacuum isn’t even, strictly speaking, cold. The few and far between particles of space dust and gas can have very high energy flying by, at least until they hit something. It’s only cold when you average out over all the empty space.
Huh, that’s really interesting! Yeah, given all of these factors, I would imagine that absolute vacuum would be… well, nothing in terms of cold or hot:-? Wow, that’s a huge paradigm shift, I shoud dare to be stupid online more often, I’m learning more from this thread than I would have expected!
Thank you!
Congratulations on being one of today’s lucky 10000!
Yaaay!🥳 My brain’s getting better at brain things!
Doesn’t all the water in us boil. Like instant Bends.
Also aliens who evolved on planets without magnetospheres: “these earthlings are interesting but they seem to get stressed and lumpy in space.”
It boils, but because of the pressure drop, not because of the temperature change
Yeah, also the nitrogen escapes (along with the rest of the now gasses too), but I guess you wouldn’t have time to feel those effects.
No, that doesn’t happen. The bends is worse because you can go from multiple atmospheres of pressure to just 1. The worst space can get is from 1 atm to 0 atm.
Yeah good point, also you wouldn’t have time to feel the effects, since the water is all going to vaporize, not just dissolved gases in your blood.