If space is a good vacuum they why do objects NOT boil or explode?

Question

If space were a good vacuum, why does solid space debris exist there? Why does the shuttle not boil to pieces?

For example, if you depressurize water here on earth, it would boil and vaporize. I assume this would happen in space with water.

However, this would also happen with lots of other materials...like the coating of any satellites.

Seems like a trivial question, but its not really.

Thanks for any non-conventional thinking!

Just curious why answer below said the blood would boil and the corpse freeze...sort of contradictory. Just trying to get more detail on this reasoning.
Thanx

I guess the strong bonding idea below makes sense. It definitely has nothing to do with gas being in water. Mercury will vaporize under low pressure.
Must have to do with the bonding.
Thanx

Answer 1

There isn't sufficient heat for the object to boil ?

Answer 2

The reason that things explode in a vacuum is because they have gas inside of them; the pressure difference causes the thing with gas in it to expand or explode.

If there's no gas in something, it's not going to expand as a result of vacuum exposure, and will therefore not explode.

The reason things boil in space is, again, because of the lower pressure. Because the pressure is really low in space, it takes a lot less energy to get things like water to boil.

Solid stuff (like a space shuttle) stays solid, though. You still have to heat it up to its melting point before you can start boiling it.

So you're right; room temperature water, exposed to vacuum, will boil and vaporize.

Things in space, near earth's orbit and outwards, aren't room temperature, though. They're cold. Very, very, very cold. That's why they're solid (and in the case of water, frozen).

Earth only stays warm because the land and atmosphere absorb heat, and retain some of it while the surface faces away from the sun.

It's not a matter of conventional or unconventional thinking, really. It's just how stuff in the universe behaves.

If you want to understand it in more detail, you should read about "thermodynamics" and the "ideal gas law". Here's a good website where you can read about that stuff:
http://cref.if.ufrgs.br/hiperfisica/hbase/heacon.html#heacon

Answer 3

How about some CONVENTIONAL thinking. NOT everything boils at a vacuum at the temperatures of space (even water will NOT boil in space IF the temperature is lowered) MOST if not ALL metals and solids will NOT boil at a vacuum. EVEN at a high temperature for instance. Aluminums boiling point is 2467C at sea pressure and is only lowered by 100 degrees at a vacuum and space is not that hot (except space really close to the sun)

Answer 4

Items that would "boil or explode" on earth when subjected to a high vacuum simply aren't used in the construction or coatings on our satillites and spacecraft. Asteroids and other debri have deteriorated from the effects of the vacuum just as similar materials would on earth if subjected to the same enviroment. They contain no moisture or similar materials which cannot survive in a vacuum. Remember, a vacuum is not some great mysterious force - it's the air pressure at the earth's surface that raises all the eyebrows when we suck the air out of a container and it crushes itself. If a spacecraft is constructed to withstand 12-14 PSI internal pressure - it's good to go, regardless of the magnatude of the outside vacuum.

Answer 5

Some things do boil and explode.... other's freeze.

If you walk out into space, the blood inside you will boil and you will explode... but then your corps will freeze.

Space is a vacuum by Earth's standards. However, what we know as space may be the air of some super-uber-giant race on their planet or whatever passes for it.

I always thought solarsystems looked like atoms.

MIB anyone?

Anyway..... the space between planets is a vaccume.. space it's self seems pretty full of stuff to me.

Answer 6

If you depressurize glass here on earth, it does not boil. If you depressurize an aluminum tank, it does not explode.
The boiling effect in vacuum is the release of gas in the liquid. There is little or no liquid in the materials from which satellites and spacecraft are made.
Cheers.

Answer 7

Water and metal and plastic are very different in structure. Water has some rather weak hydrogen bonding between molecules, not a full chemical bond.
Metals have a crystaline lattice structure, and are bonded strongly, not likely to "Boil off", although some does under the high temp of shuttle reentry. Plastic are covalently bonded, the atoms in the molecules sharing electrons, the polymers crosslinked, very tightly bonded. Water will boil in space, metals will not. Satellites last for decades, and only stop sending, physically they are there unless they crash to earth.

Answer 8

Why positioned up the comparable question two times? the respond won't replace... perhaps... it relies upon on how elastic your pores and skin is. Your pores and skin is in effect, a balloon. If unexpectedly in a vacuum, the 1st factor is the air leaves your lungs. next, you initiate up dropping warmth by utilising radiation. the indoors warmth of your physique will reason water on your physique to "boil", vaporize as a results of warmth and shortage of tension. Water will boil at room temperature if the atmospheric tension is decreased to a million PSI from the traditional 15 PSI. in case you tried to hold your breath, then it extremely is attainable you may rupture your lungs, yet once you probably did no longer, the air could bypass away and then the indoors warmth of your physique could start to boil the water, from the floor first, progressing inwards. So, if your pores and skin is powerful sufficient and elastic sufficient, you may bloat, yet no longer explode. you will no longer pop like a balloon with a pin, yet your pores and skin could desire to rip aside as a results of indoors vapor tension. you would be lifeless long in the previous any water starts to boil from loss of oxygen. interior the action picture, 2001, an area Odyssey, Dave, the main character enters an area pod and leaves the invention. He has his area healthful yet no longer the helmet. HAL refuses to enable him decrease back interior whilst he returns. So, Dave makes a decision to flow into manually. He opens an air lock and turns the pod around so the escape hatch faces the open airlock. He then "blows" the hatch. The outrush of air propels him into the airlock the place he grabs an emergency lever to close and pressurize the airlock. NASA went on checklist as saying this maneuver replaced into thoroughly functional and attainable. the completed quantity of time below vacuum interior the scene replaced into approximately 15 seconds from the time the hatch blew till the airlock replaced into close and air replaced into flooding the area.

Answer 9

There is no place in this universe that contains extreme vacuum. The outer space is about 99.99% vacuum. That is why matter is safe.

Answer 10

I would assume (excuse me for this) that it is because there is no air in space!@