If you can't light a fire in space, why do things burn up in the upper atmosphere which is classed as space?

Answer 1

You sort of answered it yourself . . . upper atmosphere is still atmosphere, although thinner.

The type of fire you refer to requires three things: heat, fuel and oxygen. Fire, like when wood or paper burns, requires oxygen to 'oxidize'. Rust is another form of oxidation, it requires oxygen to combine with the material, like steel, to oxidize (rust).

The type of burning that occurs by objects returning from orbit, or by meteors entering Earth's atmosphere, is due to friction. Objects moving at say, 25,000 mph will heat up due to friction, that is contact with the atmosphere. Objects in deeper space will not burn up at those speeds because there is no atmosphere creating friction. Around the Earth, even at high altitudes there is oxygen and other molecules that will cause an object to heat and burn at those speeds. The air is too thin to support a human, but it's still there.

Answer 2

Even at very high latitudes, there's a tiny bit of air. Not enough to matter for most purposes--but when a meteor or spacecraft enters the upper regions of the atmospere (even at an altitude we call" space") the friction with that tiny bit of air starts heating them up. They "burn up" (actually they just get so hot they disintegrate) as a result. Spacecraft, of course, are designed to withstand this, so they can use that friction to slow down--except in a tragic case like Columbia.

Answer 3

it is a result of friction between the item entering the atmosphere and the dense outer layers of the atmosphere. It isn't really "fire" as you think of it. It is like rubbing two things together until they heat up so much that they start to deteriorate. On earth we think of it as fire, but in the absence of the oxygen necessary to create fire, there can still be huge amounts of heat generated from friction.

Answer 4

The key word here is atmosphere, the speed at whice an object travels when it hits any atmosphere will determine how hot the friction heats it up, the size and density, determine if it burns completly or not.(density or mass)

Answer 5

falling objects like meteors come vth very high velocity
this causes friction with da atmosphere
the meteor gets heated up and burned
however ther is not enof oxygen in the space to light a fire

Answer 6

There is air in the upper atmosphere. That's what "atmosphere" means. Things burn where there is oxigen. They heat up where there is friction with air molicules.

Answer 7

i'm not really sure... but i don't think the objects burn up. they simply disolve becaues of the force of friction. and the oxygen level is higher in the outer atmosphere that it is in the deep vastness of outerspace.

Answer 8

Everything that does not have substance is space, like the distance between my face and the computer screen I'm typing on. I can light a match in that space.

Answer 9

not enough oxygen to sustain combustion as we do down here. however, it does not take oxygen to be destroyed by heat due to friction. while "burn up" might not be a completely accurate term, as used down here, it nevertheless conveys that death due to heat is possible in space.

Answer 10

They are traveling fast enough the friction will melt the rocks and stuff.