Featured Image Credit: The Infographics Show / Ignatiev / Getty
We've seen enough sci-fi horror movies to know that space is a scary place, but it's not just being hunted by Xenomorphs and Predators that make our blood run cold, with the real-life dangers of that black abyss being just as terrifying.
The Infographic Show has used science to show what happens to your body if you die in space, and safe to say, the movies are leaving a lot out.
Since Yuri Gagarin first blasted off in 1961, there have been 19 deaths in space. NASA's official statement on what it does with bodies in space suggests there isn't a specific plan in place, saying: "NASA does not prepare contingency plans for all remote risks."
Still, astronauts run simulations on what they would have to do in terms of quarantining a body from the rest of the crew in case of a fatality.
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The common misconception is that someone would immediately freeze, but as there’s no matter in the vacuum of space, it doesn't have a temperature.
Similarly, seeing astronauts 'explode' due to sudden changes in pressure is seemingly made up for cinema.
There is a change in pressure between a spaceship and the void of space, and while this would cause negative effects after prolonged exposure, it's not the explosive death we're often shown.
The movies telling astronauts to exhale when venturing through space without a suit is sound advice because you need to expel the expanding air or it could rupture your lungs. Pressure changes could also cause bubbles in your blood and lead to a deadly embolism.
The most likely cause of death would be a loss of oxygen, as the video explains you'd be hit with hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) after around 15 seconds.
For those who die in space without a suit, it's true that a lack of temperature in your body would eventually see you freeze.
As there is no bacteria to break the body down in space, you would stay forever in a frozen state, or until your corpse crashes into something and shatters.
The other option is your body getting cooked if it’s close enough to the radiation of a star.
Astronauts who die in a spacesuit would still face decomposition, but as decomposition doesn't come from external sources in space, you'd effectively be rotted from the inside out.
The strangest effect would be the rare occurrence where your decomposing spacesuit body is close to the radiation of a star and somehow gains a tear.
At this point, there would be a small (but silent) explosion because there's also no sound in space.
If a crew recovers a body, it has to be stored away to stop smells and potentially deadly pathogens. If not being transferred back to Earth, there are suggestions that atmospheres on planets like Mars and Venus could be used as a way to cremate astronauts.
As we seem destined to send more people to space, the grim reality of dying up there is something you might have to start thinking about.
