If someone were in space with no protection, what would cause you to die first?

Question

I have a pretty good idea of what i think but i want some other opinions. anyone really know?

Answer 1

Lack of oxygen, it is always lack of oxygen.

Death, no matter what cause usually happens due to lack of oxygen to the brain.

If you bleed to death, then death is by lack of oxygen to the brain. If your heart is destroyed, then death is by lack of oxygen to the brain. If you drown then death is by lack of oxygen to the brain. If you are buried then death is by lack of oxygen to the brain. Do you see a pattern here?

If you freeze to death then your metabolic rate slows down until you die; due to lack of oxygen to the brain. If your head is cut off then death = death due to lack of oxygen to the brain.

If you are burned to death the you might lose the brain first, if you are burned in acid, then you might lose the brain first, but otherwise the body keeps working until one of three things happens; the heart stops beating = death due to lack of oxygen to the brain. Or the lungs stop exchanging air = death due to lack of oxygen to the brain. Or the blood stops going to the brain = death due to lack of oxygen to the brain.

Even if you body did explode, then death would still be the result of loss of oxygen to the brain.

The cause of death is almost always the same, the reason for the cause can vary, but the ultimate result is one of two things; either the brain is destroyed first or the brain dies due to lack of oxygen. The brain is an oxygen hungry organ and when it is deprived of oxygen it is the first area to die. You can sit on a limb and let it fall asleep. When that happens the limb loses its supply of oxygen. If you kept your limb stuck like this for 10 minutes then the moment you restored the blood supply the limb would keep working. The rest of the body is pretty much the same. You can stop the heart and lungs for a 6 hour operation and even install a new organ and start the entire system beating and breathing again. As long as you don’t deprive the brain of oxygen.

So for every ‘What is the cause of death.” The first answer is due to lack of oxygen to the brain 90% of the time.

Answer 2

You would die of asphyxiation within a minute or two.

You won't freeze to death. Space is not "cold" in the traditional sense. Space is a vacuum, and as such it has no temperature. Temperature is the measurement of the average heat of a substance. There is no substance with heat from which you can measure a temperature.

To be perfectly fair, all that really is not true in the strictest sense. Space does have particles in it, and they do move, and therefore a temperature can be measured from that which is where the super low temp comes from. However, since there really isn't any matter in space to carry heat away from your body, the only way you would get colder is by losing heat through radiation which is fairly slow, and if you were in sunlight you'd probably actually warm up.

At any rate, the matter is not subject to "opinion". Does anyone really know? Yes, plenty of tests have been done on this kind of thing and very smart people have come up with the answers.

Answer 3

Basically, your whole life there has been pounds of pressure pushing against your whole body. Everything must push just as much force back so it isn't crushed by the pressure against it. If you go from inside a space ship that is nice and pressurized, to empty space that has no pressure, all of a sudden your body is pushing out a lot of force with nothing coming back against it. So your body is ripped apart from the force that it is pushing outwards (which is what everyone meant by it exploding). (Also, someone above said your skin is too tough to explode, but I was reffering to your organs and other things getting messed up from the pressure, not just the exploding human part of it.) Well damn the best answer should go to Dan S. That was a really good post! :D

Your death would be instantaneous because your body is constantly pushing outward, you wouldn't have a chance to freeze or even breathe.

Answer 4

ever hear the phrase space is a vacuum? well it does just that, it VACUUMS the breath right out of you! if that doesnt get you the extreme heat or the extreme cold will get you next, or if your lucky enough for it to be a nice day out, you may just get hit by a piece of meteoric space dust that will hit you just like a bullet would... which is why we invented space suits

Answer 5

Loneliness

Answer 6

I think it would be the lack of pressure - your small blood vessels would rupture, your lungs would burst and have all the air sucked out by the lack of air pressure, and you'd either bleed to death very quickly or suffocate.

Answer 7

The realization that you are in space with no protection would be enough for me to sucuumb.

Answer 8

the vacuum of space (lack of air pressure) would cause you to explode. This would be damn near instantaneous. Oxygen won't even factor into it.

Answer 9

Probably the lack of air. The intense cold might kill you pretty damned fast too. Not to mention lack of pressure.

Answer 10

The presssure in your body would cause it to explode, since space is a vacuum and there is no pressure to equalize.