What would kill you first if you were exposed to the emptyness of outerspace?

Question

because its a vaccuum is should suck all the air from your body which would cause your organs to collapse, but because there is no pressure in space, a sudden change from a pressurized environment should make you burst. Then if your in empty black space it would be so cold you should freeze instantly, if you were near a star there would be immense radation and heat...so many ways to die, what would kill you first? What else could/would happen to your body?

Answer 1

This quote says it better than I can. From wiki:

The environment of space is highly dangerous without appropriate protection. The greatest threat is from the lack of pressure in the vacuum environment, while temperature and radiation effects also have an influence.

Contrary to imagery in the public media (as in such films as Outland, Total Recall, and Sunshine), a short term exposure to vacuum of up to 30 seconds is unlikely to cause permanent physical damage. Thanks to the containing tension of the skin, the body will not explode, though swelling may occur. Due to the lack of a medium to allow conduction or convection, loss of heat is by radiation only, which would take place in a very slow process. Therefore, there is no danger of immediately freezing.
Some physical damage may result if the victim attempted to hold his/her breath on introduction to the low pressure environment. In that case, a ruptured lung may result from the imbalance in pressure. Damage may also be done to ear drums, and the gastric system. Without the protection of the atmosphere, solar radiation, particularly ultraviolet rays may cause severe sunburn in a few seconds. After 10 seconds, decompression sickness (the bends) may also result.

However, the primary threat is of asphyxiation. In the low pressure environment, normal gas exchange would instead cause the rapid deoxygenation of the bloodstream. After up to 15 seconds, the deoxygenated blood would reach the brain, and loss of consciousness would result. Death would gradually follow after two minutes of exposure - though the limits are uncertain. If actions are taken quickly, and normal pressure restored within around 90 seconds, the victim may well make a full recovery.

Answer 2

The first thing to kill you would be that there is no pressure in space.

Being near a star is a nearly impossible because no matter what spaceship you take, even if considerable distance is there between you and the star, the heat will start warming the space ship to enough temperature that by the time you get out you will already be toast.

Temperature has no meaning in empty space.
What is the temperature of vacuum ? Tell me. No temperature is there in vacuum. Until there is no medium to absorb it. So if you go out in empty space you will absorb the radiant heat of the stars and your body will have a high temperature and it will not freeze.

Organs collapse when the outer pressure is much more than the inside pressure, therefore the theory of yours that our organs will collapse is not possible.

So the only option left will be that our body will burst.

Answer 3

In 1965, NASA worker was exposed to a near vacuum(less than 1psi). Nothing bad really happened except that blood was no longer carrying oxygen to his brain, so he started to pass out.

The technicians noticed the situation about 14 seconds after the incident started, and they began to re pressurize the chamber.

The only thing the NASA worker recalls of that event is the water from his tongue beginning to boil.

________________
So no, you wouldn't freeze instantly, you air will not be sucked out - instead, the lungs will push out the remaining air by their own(if you do try to hold, they might rip). Your organs will not collapse. A sudden change will not make you burst - but it will probably damage your eardrums.

Yes, you will be very cold, even if you are near a star(in this event your skin will burn, but you would still feel cold).

The thing that would kill you is the lack of oxygen in the brain.

Answer 4

if you went into space without a spacesuit you would die instantly from the pressure loss. the human body is designed to function under about 14 lbs per square inch (a lot) of pressure. In space there is zero pressure. the loss of pressure would pull the water molecules in your body apart untill they became a gas. essentially, your blood, which is mostly liquid water, would flash boil, and your cells ,which are filled with water would lyce (burst) as the water in them boiled and expanded. You would not explode. you would die from the pressure change first. there is no "cold space." there are so many stars and other radiation releasing objects that radiation is everywhere. just think, if yoiu can see a star, then its light is hitting your retina, and it is warming you. and there are a ton of visible stars. in fact one of the greatest risks of long term spaceflight in deep space is sunburn or skin cancer. also humans are mostly water, which has a high specific heat, so it takes a long time, relatively, to change our body temperature. besides, how could your blood freeze if it were boiling? Finally, to get so close to a star that it incinerated you, you would burn up in your spaceship before experienceing empty space, so it really is not a fair scenario. Besides, the heat would only make your blood boil faster, so you would die from pressure loss.

Answer 5

The truth is that space is far too cold. we couldn't survive longer than 3-10 secs.

People think because we are close enough to the sun that we can feel its heat. That's not true. The sun is 93million miles away from earth. that's equivalent to shining a flashlight in australia and hoping to feel it's warmth in england.

When you look up at the sun on a bright day and you feel the sunlight on your face and its all warm and lovely, the fact is it's not really the sunlight that's warm, it's the molocules of air around you. You see the photons of light excite molocules of air and they jiggle, they move around and because the atmosphere is so thick at ground level, something like a molcule cant move a milimeter without smacking into another, its this smacking together that causes friction and generates heat.

So next time you look up at the sun and feel the warmth on your face you are really feel the air around you being heated up by all this jiggling and crashing together. cool stuff.

Answer 6

Lack Of Pressure, Yr Body Will Just Boil Off Or Burst

Answer 7

Wow, I don't know. Just think of the possiblities.

- Suffocation from lack of oxygen (obvious)
- If near a large mass (like Mars), you would be pulled towards it at an extreme speed, thus dying from being smashed at the planet's surface
- Heat radiation from stars
- Yeah, sudden change in pressure so you would explode...
- Freezing to death
- Vacuum...
- Black hole if you get sucked into one
- Incoming rocket or space shuttle

My guess would be the exploding thing...

Answer 8

A person would die by asphyxiation if exposed to a vacuum for a prolonged period of time. It's a common misconception that exposure to a vacuum causes a person to explode. In fact, people have been accidentally exposed to vacuums here on Earth.

Answer 9

well if u were in true nothingness, so out past where light has been able to travel in 13 something billion years. it would be the fact that ever single particle in your body would be frozen in place (absolute 0) and at the same time you would be ripped apart and flung through out the nothing ness of where our universe hasnt expanded.

Answer 10

Nope. I am pretty sure that they have them housed in Nevada and other facilities. Government agents are and have been working with them for decades. Those who have human features are taught to assimilate and are living in appointed housing communities, they are under surveillance and monitored.