What is fire like in Space?

Question

I remember the comment in Event Horizon (that really scary movie O.o) That fire in 0G acts like a fluid and Laurence Fishburne described it to be really freakin' trippy.

Anyone know what it looks like? Video Link/ pic's would be nice :)

-.- I'm talking about like on a space station... 0 gravity?

Thank you Einstien, Brommy and Doc for actually reading the details and answering the question

Einstien: There is no image file

Brommy: So pretty :D

Doc: Not really what I was asking but atleast you were saying that it does exsist in space.

Answer 1

I understood your question, you meant "what's fire like in zero gravity" not space hehehe, there can't be fire in space once there is no oxygen, but fire in zero gravity (inside a ship with oxygen in space for example, as in the movie, yes I watched it aswell) is exactly as described in the movie, it acts like a fluid, for example the fire of a explosion, but sometimes when for example in a candle, it acts like a round bubble (see the picture of a candle's flam in zero gravity here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgravity).

EDITED: Sorry about the image, I don't know why the link did not work, but just search for "Microgravity" on Wikipedia and scroll down a little bit the page and you'll see the image.


FCH.

Answer 2

Fire requires oxygen. No oxygen in space. The sun for instance, is Hydrogen converted into Helium. I copied a text for you to understand the concept. But NEVER read too much into a movie.
Hydrogen is the simplest element known to man. Each atom of hydrogen has only one proton. It is also the most plentiful gas in the universe. Stars are made primarily of hydrogen.

The sun is basically a giant ball of hydrogen and helium gases. In the sun's core, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms. This process—called fusion—gives off radiant energy.

This radiant energy sustains life on earth. It gives us light and makes plants grow. It makes the wind blow and rain fall. It is stored as chemical energy in fossil fuels. Most of the energy we use today came from the sun's radiant energy.

Hydrogen gas is lighter than air and, as a result, it rises in the atmosphere. This is why hydrogen as a gas (H2) is not found by itself on earth. It is found only in compound form with other elements. Hydrogen combined with oxygen, is water (H2O). Hydrogen combined with carbon, forms different compounds such as methane (CH4), coal, and petroleum. Hydrogen is also found in all growing things—biomass. It is also an abundant element in the earth's crust.

Hydrogen has the highest energy content of any common fuel by weight(about three times more than gasoline), but the lowest energy content by volume (about four times less than gasoline). It is the lightest element, and it is a gas at normal temperature and pressure. ***NOTE: Now, fire can burn in 0 gravity but "The Doc" is still wrong about the rockets burning "fire" in space. It is Hydrogen fuel as well. Fire is what burns off of something ignited and fueled by oxygen. Fire in 0 gravity on a ship, would look like a liquid flame, flowing.*****

Answer 3

Well, so far everyone has struck out by denying that it could even happen.

Fire can exist in space if you bring your own oxidizer with you. What do you think a rocket does, gang?

What you WOULDN'T see would be all the smoke normally associated with the surface launches. That is often really steam. In space it wouldn't be hot enough to be visible, but if it were, you wouldn't be able to distinguish between the "real" fire and the energetically excited steam. Look for some of the NASA videos associated with shuttle missions that launch one or more satellites. You would see the fire of a rocket motor in such cases. It wouldn't be that impressive because of the lesser dispersion factor.

Fire in space would be less dispersed than it is on Earth because it doesn't have any air to disrupt its flow out of the rocket vents. Here on Earth, as tenuous as air is, it is still in the way and has to be pushed aside, hence the dispersion. But we could still see it.

What we see as fire (ANYWHERE) is nothing more than the results of a chemical reaction that produced a lot of excess energy in the form of HEAT. That heat causes molecular excitation and that leads to lots of interesting conditions.

The fire glows because the excess heat energy expresses itself in having electrons in higher orbitals than normal, a condition that atoms naturally tend to alleviate by emitting photons equal in energy to the difference between the electronic orbitals involved in the emission.

This emitted photon's energy USUALLY falls into the red, orange, and yellow range based on typical orbitals, hence the colors of fire. The Hydrogen p-orbital to s-orbital transitions are the source of the red-orange glow commonly exhibited by stellar hydrogen clouds.

We would still see the glow of the emitted, combusted fuel molecules until the photons emitted by the molecules degraded into the infra-red region. But of course, that's when we also would feel the radiant HEAT of that fire, and YES that would be in space too. Radiant heat is exactly how the Sun gives us its energy.

Answer 4

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/fire-space.jpg

If you were to light a fire in a microgravity environment, say onboard the space shuttle or in an area of space with marginal oxygen quantities, it would form a sphere!

Answer 5

it looks like a pretty much perfect sphere instead of tapering off.

Answer 6

im pretty sure there cant be fire in space cuse there no oxygen and fire needs oxygen to burn but im not sure