how do things burn in space if there are no particles?

Question

I've been told that outer space is just vacuum but we see explosions in space in films or are they just fantasy

Answer 1

There is no sound and no fire in space. You are right, space is a vacuum, because there is no air pressure. Spaceships could explode, but the sound would only be heard inside the ship until the point of destruction, as that's where the air would be to transmit the sound. Also you need people to hear a sound, which is a bit like the old conundrum: "If a tree falls in a forest but no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Answer 2

Things will only burn if the fuel and oxidizer are present in sufficient quantities for a reaction to occur. In a vacuum there is neither, so no fire in the conventional sense.

However, a flame can be made to burn in space, if the fuel and oxidizer are forced together in a small volume. When a spaceship explodes, we can assume the fuel tanks and the oxygen onboard the ship are reacting. As the ship blows apart the fuel / oxygen will still burn up until the point the density of them drops to the point where the reaction ceases. In a vacuum, this will be quite fast as there is no outside pressure to "hold in" the burning fuel and oxygen.

If the explosion is nuclear, then it will work, as nuclear reactions don't burn in the same way as a normal explosion.

Also if the explosion is from a high explosive such as C4, it will explode in space as the reaction comes from the unstable molecules of explosive falling (very very quickly) apart.

Answer 3

Hi. The final Columbia mission experimented with flames (safely contained) under near zero gravity. The flames turned into small spheres of gas with the flame on the outer surface. Info on the web. When the Challenger exploded the tremendous ball of flame took place in a partial vacuum. This happened because there was fuel, oxygen, and heat. In space a rocket engine emits flame for the same reason. But if you have no fuel OR no oxidizer OR no heat you will not have flame. Explosions in the movies are just for fun.

Answer 4

Rockets carry liquid oxygen, so if you puncture both tanks, they will explode. A nuclear bomb does not require oxygen, so it will still explode.

There would be no sound of course. You could hear a nuke on the radio, though.

I think that a match could be lighted in a vacuum because of all the chemicals, but then it would go out.

I wonder if a gun would still fire in a vacuum? The energy comes from decomposition of unstable nitrogen compounds.

High explosives should still explode for the same reason.

Answer 5

By "burning" do you mean within the beings of stars and planets? Burning as you probably see it (which includes "fire") is the result of a combustion reaction. Combustion is the process by which glucose and oxygen with the help of heat is chemically changed into carbon dioxide, water and ATP (energy).

Combustion cannot happen in space unless glucose and oxygen are present. The way stars burn is by way of nuclear fusion which takes place at their core from the very beginning of their birth. The cores of all stars which burn are so dense that hydrogen nuclei (one proton) are fused with other hydrogen nuclei to create helium atoms. This process results in the release of a lot of energy for its size, and that energy is in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light: i.e: sunlight as from our sun and heat). It has nothing to do with the burning as we know it on Earth because the resources to create that fire simply aren't available in space in the same quantities.

Things tend to burn by way of nuclear fusion because of the abundance of hydrogen and the force of gravity that attracts these hydrogen nuclei together with so much force over relatively short periods of time.

The "explosions" you see in movies and whatnot (say from spacecraft) is evidence of a combustion reaction, because that spacecrafts use combustion to operate. If there were no oxygen on board, there would be no explosion. The fire from that explosion can only exist as far as the oxygen is ejected, so once all oxygen is burned, the fire ceases to also burn.

Answer 6

No Universal actually set up expensive explosion rigs in orbit around the earth in collaboration with nasa just for that 3 second shot of something exploding in apollo 13

Answer 7

Uh, the things that are exploding aren;t exactly nonexistant...they form a lot of particles when they explode. That said, movies take a lot of artistic license in how they depict explosions in space. Heck, they take a lot of artistic license in how cars explode here on Earth...since it is very rare for cars to explode in real accidents.

Answer 8

They burn through the pressure the speed crushed it. (it cannot burn because oxygen is needed for fire)