2006-08-16 18:10:14 · 9 answers · asked by regilgrant 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
What a fun question!
Here is what will happen.
You will quickly freeze solid. There will be no decay due to chemical or biological processes. Your body will most likely rotate and the side facing the sun at any given moment will increase in temperature rapidly then cool down again when it is pointed away from the sun. This action will cause numerous cracks throughout the ice cube that used to be your body.
Eventually, some small particle will hit you at a good velocity. At that point you will shatter into a few million pieces and become a normal looking though very interesting shower of meteors that will burn up falling into some atmosphere or disintegrate on impact with some other massive body.
Just the kind of fun that someone like Wednesday Addams would dream about.
2006-08-17 02:21:49 · answer #1 · answered by sparc77 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, a dead body will decay in space, but the rate of decay will be based on non-biological factors. There are moving dust(micro-meteors) and meteors in space that will collide with and erode the dead body over cosmic periods of time and there are the chemical reactions caused by the impact of cosmic rays, X-rays,microwaves, etc. from any number of radiation & high-energy particle emitting sources like ordinary stars and end-of life exploding stars like novae and supernovae. All the decay will be physical and chemical changes caused by the matter and energy moving about in space. Decay will take place very gradually given the very low densities of material particles and photons in outer space which do the erosion. TWH 08172006
2006-08-16 19:38:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
It is possible that a carcass could continue to decay for a time in space, due to area's of the carcass sealing off from the Vaccume of space.
The organisms within these sealed off area's would have a supply of various gases given off by tissues for a time.
Ultimately the carcass would dry out and freeze, due to moisture loss, thereby ceasing the decay.
2006-08-16 18:20:00 · answer #3 · answered by Thunder 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. When dead bodies rot on earth, it's because they're actually being eaten by other living things; bacteria, worms, maggets, etc.
Odds are, the bacteria that live in your body can't survive in a vacuum any better than you can. So your corpse will stay well-preserved (until it falls into the sun, or smashes into something else).
Come to think of it, dying in space would be very similar to being freeze-dried (which is an excellent way of, amongst other things, preserving the bodies of dead animals).
2006-08-16 18:15:00 · answer #4 · answered by extton 5 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Ever hear of stuff that gets "vaccuum packed"? Well, it lasts virtually forever.
I'm not sure what solar & cosmic radiation would do to a carcass though.
2006-08-16 18:16:32 · answer #5 · answered by tbom_01 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No, you need Oxygen and microorganisms for the procee of decaying to occur.
2006-08-16 18:19:08 · answer #6 · answered by SweetNurse 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, but it will desiccate. Decay requires live organisms to happen. There's no air out there to support them.
2006-08-16 18:16:41 · answer #7 · answered by MaqAtak 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I would have to say no, there isn't any bacteria or any enviromental variables in space.
2006-08-16 18:16:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, because because there isn't any bacteria for that to happen. It simply becomes spatial debri.
2006-08-16 18:25:31 · answer #9 · answered by alex 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋