Can jelly exist in a vacuum ?

Question

Or does it explode ?

Answer 1

I have lots of Jelly in my vacuum.. with bits of chips and Taco`s..

Answer 2

What a fun question! I believe the answer is theoretically, yes. If the jelly was free from any bubbles or true liquids that would rapidly expand in the extreme low pressure, then it should be able to exist. And even if there were bubbles, they would probably cause the jelly to break into pieces, but probably not to explode per se.

Answer 3

There are 2 types of vacuum - a perfect vacuum, and a partial vacuum. The vacuum of outerspace, though not quite perfect, is of a higher quality than man made partial vacuums.

Man made vacuums have everyday uses, such as in lightbulbs. If your question about the jelly is asking can ANYTHING survive in a vacuum, yes it can. Clearly the components in the lightbulb are not destroyed simply by being in a man made vacuum. And neither are spacecraft destroyed by being in a natural vacuum.

Being exposed directly to vacuum is not good for living things. Space experiments show living things can't survive more than around 90 seconds in a vacuum. This is because of asphyxiation and a tendency for liquids to boil in a vacuum. Experiments on living creatures have been performed in the vacuum of space, and in man made experiments (notably by the German Nazi regime on human subjects, for the benefit of the Luftwaffe.) Despite the boiling of liquids in a vacuum, exposure for less than 90 seconds is usually not so severe and a complete recovery is likely.

To create a vacuum around the jelly would require a vacuum pump. You cannot create a perfect vacuum. A perfect vacuum has absolutely nothing in it. Not even a jelly! You can create a partial vacuum. Liquids cannot be pulled, but gases can be pumped out to create the vacuum, so if there are any air bubbles in the jelly they may damage the aesthetics of the jelly as they are sucked out. I doubt being able to produce the conditions required to boil the water content of the jelly.

Answer 4

A substance explodes when its internal pressure excedes the pressure outside so that there is a sudden net outward force on the substance. Surface tension/cohesion of the substance also tends to keep the internal pressure and resultant forces from exploding outward.

So your jelly...does it have surface tension that can keep the pressure differential between its innards and the vacuum of space from exceding the tear/tensile strength of the surface? If your jelly is biological, like the Medusa species, then it is adapted to extreme external pressures of the ocean pressing inward on it.

One way it does this is to have high pressure water make up the overwhelming majority of its substance. That way the net difference between the outside and inside pressures is small.

Thus, if it were suddenly thrown into outer space, its innards would be at high pressure and that would likely force the jelly to explode because its surface is hardly adapted to relatively high pressure differentials outward. In a real sense, a Medusa jelly would pop much like a bubble pops in air...for the same reason, its internal pressure versus the lower outer pressure forces the surface to tear.

On the other hand...if the surface tension of your jelly is high enough to prevent the tear (the pop) for just a short while, the jelly might freeze on the spot. At 4 deg K, things would freeze pretty fast in outer space if not offset by the radiation of a nearby star. So, depending on the circumstances, your jelly might just become a jelly popcycle rather than explode.

Answer 5

Several people have stated that it can't and have stated that water/fluids "boil off" in a vacuum! I would ask how come we have asteroids composed mainly of water? Comets etc?

All the the planets and stars exist in a virtual vacuum. A perfect vacuum can not be created in nature or indeed by us! So my answer is yes.

See that one in Kirk's star-treck. LOL.

Answer 6

There would be no air pressure acting on it (cause there's no air!) so it might well explode, but truth is that's only been seen in objects with air already inside, attempting to get out (see Diffusion in Wikipedia).

Otherwise I'd say that it wouldn't explode because there's no forces acting on it. It would just stay the same.

Answer 7

It will slightly expand and thats it. No explosion. The internal pressure of the gas is not enough to burst it.

Same with humans in space. They would not explode because internal pressure is not large enough.

Answer 8

Lots of interesting comments

I cannot remember the reference now but consider this possibility and see if it is logical to you


Space is not a vacuum, it could not possibly be - it is very low pressure bcoz there is low gravity, gas is there, and it is nitrogen, the most abundant element.

if you reduced from breathable atmosphere to space pressure quickly, then, yes, it would appear to explode.

if you reduced the pressure slowly and left it outside in space, then it would freeze solid.

HTH

Answer 9

No
Jelly is biological
in vacuum, everything is void
so jelly can not survive in vacuum

Answer 10

It would explode as the water in it boiled away.