if theres no oxygen in space how can there be an explosion?

Answer 1

There is oxygen in space (ships) so there can be explosions.

Answer 2

THE REAL ANSWER:
Where did you read there is absolutely no oxygen in outerspace????????
Where exactly do you think the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere come from? it came from exploding star systems and other such astronomical events. NOTE that: the sun does not need oxygen because it "runs" on nuclear fusion.


And to the person that says fuel combusts even if their is no oxygen your wrong. Oxygen is the only element that is ABSOLUTELY needed for combustion. So you say how does the space ship fuel system work in outer space work. Simple. the fuel for the space ship is infused with Oxygen.

Answer 3

The types of explosions in space (i assume you are refering to ones having to do with stars) do not occur as a result of combustion, which requires oxygen. These explosions are giant releases of energy, but happen because of fusion, fision, and other chemical processes.

And, there is oxygen in space, but not in an atmostphere like on earth. Stars have different layers of fussion reactions. All the elements up to iron are made in fusion reactions in stars. However, nothing heavier than iron is made in a star.

Answer 4

Hey you noticed that....

Actually you only need a chemical reaction (or nuke) to have an exothermic explosion. You can have a pressure vessel rupture too. Most explosives contain their own chemical ways to react - you need oxygen for an oxidation reactions commonly experienced (i.e. fuel-air).

For example the Titan missiles used Hydrazine and Nitrogen tetra-oxide (a hypergolic, explodes on contact) fuel. The shuttle uses hydrogen oxygen. The Saturn 5 used oxygen kerosene.

Think about how they blow things up in mines or underwater... no free air there...

Answer 5

the same way that there is an explosion when a nuke goes off. The explosions in space are mostly fusion reactions, so the exact opposite of our nuclear bombs. instead of breaking apart atoms- the fusion fuses atoms together. ex. H+H=He. even though there is no oxygen- there is a huge release of energy.

Answer 6

Certain chemicals can create oxygen as they combine or as they burn. Id enough O2 is created fast enoug an explosion can happen, even in the vacuum of space.

Novas are good examples of galactic sized explosions that have taken place.

Answer 7

im not quite sure what is it you are asking, if its about a space shuttle or something exploding, well they took the oxygen with them, if you mean exploding planets and such, they are most often explosions caused by a build up of pressure, not the sort of explosion like in a gas can and a match.

Answer 8

There can't. But it looks cool for movies.

It's the same thing for the "swoosh" spaceships seem to make in movies. Sound cannot travel in a vacuum.

Now, if you're talking about a natural incident, like a supernova, the word, "explosion", refers to the rapid expansion of the gas and core material of the star. There is no "fireball"-like occurance, though.

Answer 9

This is one of those things that Hollywood will almost always get wrong, because they want them to look like the audience expects them to look, and have absolutely no interest in teaching physics!

There is not too much data available (in public, anyhow) on what explosions in space really look like, so I will have to limit myself to what I think they should look like. (At least I do have an interest in teaching physics.)

Details about the amount of energy and matter involved in the explosion affect the appearance. A universal generality, true in space as on Earth, is that, other things being equal, a larger explosion (inevitably seen from a larger distance by any witnesses who survive to describe it) appears to happen more slowly than a smaller explosion seen from closer at hand. However, bear in mind that the actual energy release event of any actual explosion happens very quickly.

On Earth, the interaction with the surrounding matter, be it air, water, or whatever, means that the initial energy is very quickly, in a few milliseconds, spread out over a fairly large amount of matter, no matter what the nature of the explosive. This material, typically air, forms a luminous fireball that expands at the speed of sound in the air that has been heated by the explosion, which is faster than the speed of sound in ordinary cool air. The result is a shock wave at the surface of the fireball. As the fireball expands it compresses and heats the surrounding air, while losing energy by radiation and also because of the work it is doing on the outside air, all of which causes it to cool. Eventually it cools to the point where it is no longer luminous, the shock wave moves out ahead and makes the BANG! that we hear and that may knock down buildings, and a cloud of swirling debris, smoke, and maybe brownish nitrogen oxides are left behind.

In space, the first few milliseconds proceed as they would in air (say), but then the transfer of energy to the surrounding air never takes place. As a result the initial small, intensely hot fireball simply keeps expanding at very high speed, and the expanding gases and any fragments fly off in straight lines. The fireball cools by radiation at first, but as its density drops it becomes so transparent that radiation is suppressed. For a chemical high explosive, the expansion speed would be a few thousand feet per second. So for a moderate size explosive -- say 1 meter across -- the products will expand to 100 meters in probably less than 0.1 sec, meaning the density will have decreased by a factor of a million, and the visible explosion will effectively be over. Visually the effect would be of a very brief, brilliant flash in a region only a little bigger than the actual extent of the explosive material. Of course there would be no billowing swirling smoke, and any fragments would almost certainly be moving too fast to be visible. The effect would probably be something like that of a big flashbulb.

For a nuclear explosion, the fireball would radiate mainly in the x-ray and ultraviolet, which are not visible to the eye, although the visible part of the radiation would produce a blue-white flash. The expansion speed would be many hundreds or thousands of times faster than for a chemical explosion, so that the time scale would be less than a millisecond. All the material near the source would be vaporized, so there would be no fragments. If the explosion was truly in space, and not in a tenuous atmosphere, then viewed from a survivable distance the effect would probably be similar to, but even less spectacular than, a chemical explosion.

There is one account of a nuclear explosion in the public literature that I know, that of the 1 Megaton "Starfish" explosion in 1962 over Johnston Is. in the South Pacific. Because it was not really in space, but in the upper atmosphere a few hundred km high, it created a ghostly fireball hundreds of km in extent, much less brilliant than in air, but still "a fearsome sight" (according to Bernard J. O'Keefe, "Nuclear Hostages", 1983).

Regarding visual fireworks, I would expect none in vacuum, but as the Starfish example shows, even a small amount of matter could have a spectacular effect. For a nuclear explosion especially, spectacular fluorescence effects could occur due to the excitation of the upper atmosphere by ultraviolet and X rays. Also, the burst of high-energy charged particles from a nuclear explosion near the Earth can be caught in the Earth's magnetic field, and then channeled into the upper atmosphere, producing auroras that may be spectacular over large parts of the globe.

The effect of gravity should depend on the velocity of the ejecta compared to the escape velocity of the body in question. For a nuclear explosion near an airless body like the Moon (in the absence of a strong magnetic field), the material ejected would be moving so much faster than escape velocity that it would simply stream off in straight lines, with essentially no effect. For a chemical explosion, the velocity of the ejecta on the Moon would be comparable to but mostly less than lunar escape velocity, so that the fragments would typically follow elliptical ballistic trajectories that would bring them raining down all over the Moon, hundreds or thousands of km from the original explosion, for many minutes or even hours. If the explosion was well above the surface, some fragments might go into lunar orbit. A few might strike the Earth.

Answer 10

well if theres fuel there can be an explosion but as soon as that fuel runs out no more fire explosion