can you dicompose in space?

Question

This has been bothering me all year!

Answer 1

No.

If you dumped a body into orbit, the vacuum of space would cause any moisture to either evaporate, or to freeze solid, like dry ice. If the body was exposed to radiant heat from the sun, all the moisture would evaporate, essentially "freeze-drying" it.

The total lack of oxygen and moisture, would ensure that the body was almost perfectly preserved. A "space mummy", if you will...

Hope that makes sense,
W.O.M.B.A.T.

Answer 2

Well...depends.

Are you in a space suit? You may smell pretty bad by the time the air in your suit leaks through the seals. (No seal is perfect; eventually, you'd be in open vaccuum.)

Are you close to the sun? If not, you'd tend to freeze where you are. After a while, the water and other liquids in your body would sublimate, leaving you looking like a mummy discovered in the Andes.

Are you instantly in vaccuum? If so, you'd die a painful death in about 20-30 seconds, and the liquids in your body would out-gas over a period of hours to days, and again - you'd look like a mummy.

Answer 3

Insuficient information provided...

Are you, or the dead body, naked (no space suit) and just floating in space?

Are you, or the dead body, inside of a space ship with an atmosphere and heating systems?

At what altitude from the surface of the Earth are you...
seeks information - are you barely up in space, or in deep
space?

All information is needed to answer this question.

Answer 4

Hi. In a vacuum, probably not in the normal sense. Your water would evaporate and would not support bacteria. The light would tend to disintegrate you over time.

Answer 5

No. There is no air (oxygen, nitrogen, CO2...) and you would be frozen solid. Unless you were by the sun, in which case you would be incinerated.

Answer 6

yes the living organisms and bacteria inside your body will disintegrate you