6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space

11/11/2020 6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space | Space
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6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space

By Natalie Wolchover March 19, 2011
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Welcome to Weightlessness
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NASA
Watched pots, as they say, never boil. Besides, even if they did, why watch them? You know
exactly what boiling water looks like.
But I bet you don't know what it looks like in outer space.
Here are six everyday occurrences — including the boiling of water — that happen very
di erently in microgravity, plus explanations as to why.
This countdown was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to Space.com. Follow
Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover
Water Boils in a Big Bubble
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NASA
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On Earth, boiling water creates thousands of tiny vapor bubbles. In space, though, it produces
one giant undulating bubble.
Fluid dynamics are so complex that physicists didn't know for sure what would happen to
boiling water in microgravity until the experiment was nally performed in 1992 aboard a
space shuttle. Afterward, the physicists decided that the simpler face of boiling in space
probably results from the absence of convection and buoyancy — two phenomena caused by
gravity. On Earth, these e ects produce the turmoil we observe in our teapots.
Much can be learned from these boiling experiments. According to NASA Science News,
"Learning how liquids boil in space will lead to more e cient cooling systems for spacecraft ...
[It] might also be used someday to design power plants for space stations that use sunlight to
boil a liquid to create vapor, which would then turn a turbine to produce electricity."
• Infographic: How Big Is the International Space Station?
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Glenn Research Center, NASA
On Earth, ames rise. In space, they move outward from their source in all directions. Here's
why:
The closer you are to the Earth's surface, the more air molecules there are, thanks to the
planet's gravity pulling them there. Conversely, the atmosphere gets thinner and thinner as
you move vertically, causing a gradual decline in pressure. The atmospheric pressure
di erence over a height of one inch, though slight, is enough to shape a candle ame.
That pressure di erence causes an e ect called natural convection. As the air around a ame
heats up, it expands, becoming less dense than the cold air surrounding it. As the hot air
molecules expand outward, cold air molecules push back against them. Because there are
more cold air molecules pushing against the hot molecules at the bottom of the ame then
there are at its top, the ame experiences less resistance at the top. And so it buoys upward.
When there's no gravity, though, the expanding hot air experiences equal resistance in all
directions, and so it moves spherically outward from its source.
• What's an Air Pocket?
Bacteria Grow More ... and Are More Deadly
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Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH
Thirty years of experiments have shown that bacterial colonies grow much faster in space.
Astro-E. coli colonies, for example, grow almost twice as fast as their Earth-bound
counterparts. Furthermore, some bacteria grow deadlier. A controlled experiment in 2007
testing salmonella growth on the space shuttle Atlantis showed that the space environment
changed the expression of 167 of the bacteria's genes. Studies performed after the ight
found that these genetic tweaks made the salmonella almost three times more likely to cause
disease in mice than control bacteria grown on Earth.
There are several hypotheses as to why bacteria thrive in weightlessness. They may simply
have more room to grow than they do on Earth, where they tend to clump together at the
bottom of petri dishes. As for the changes in gene expression in salmonella, scientists think
they may result from a stress response in a protein called Hfq, which plays a role in controlling
gene expression. Microgravity imposes mechanical stresses on bacterial cells by changing the
way liquids move over their surfaces. Hfq responds by entering a type of "survival mode" in
which it makes the cells more virulent.
By learning how salmonella responds to stress in space, scientists hope to learn how it might
handle stressful situations on Earth. Hfq may undergo a similar stress response, for example,
when salmonella is under attack by a person's immune system.
• How Does Salmonella Contaminate Vegetables?
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You Can't Burp Beer
4 Pines Brewing Company
Because no gravity means no buoyant force, there's nothing pushing gas bubbles up and out PLAY
of carbonated drinks in space. This means carbon dioxide bubbles simply stagnate inside
sodas and beers, even when they're inside astronauts' bellies. Indeed, without gravity,
astronauts can't burp out the gas — and that makes drinking carbonated beverages extremely
uncomfortable.
Luckily, a company in Australia has concocted a brew that'll be just the thing for kicking back
on space ights. Vostok 4 Pines Stout Space Beer is rich in avor, but weak in carbonation. A
nonpro t space research organization called Astronauts4Hire is looking into whether the beer
will be safe for consumption on future commercial space ights. Subscribe 
• What Makes Us Burp?
A Rose by the Same Name Smells ... Di erent
NASA
Flowers produce di erent aromatic compounds when grown in space, and as a result, smell
notably di erent. This is because volatile oils produced by plants — the oils that carry
fragrance — are strongly a ected by environmental factors like temperature, humidity and a
ower's age. Considering their delicacy, it isn't surprising that microgravity would a ect the
oils' production as well.
An "out of this world" fragrance produced by a variety of rose called Overnight Scentsation
own on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 was later analyzed, replicated and incorporated
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into "Zen," a perfume sold by the Japanese company Shiseido.
• How Does Scent Travel?
You Sweat More
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ESA
As explained in the context of candle ames, zero g's means there's no natural convection.
This means body heat doesn't rise o skin, so the body constantly perspires in an e ort to
cool itself down. Even worse, because that steady stream of sweat won't drip or evaporate, it
simply builds up. All this makes for a pretty moist journey to the beyond.
• What's It Like to Live In Space?
Isekai Cheat Magician
Taichi and Rin look to survive in a new world using the cheat level magic they possess.
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11/11/2020 6 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space | Space

Water Boils in a Big Bubble

• Infographic: How Big Is the International Space Station?

Flames Are Spheres PLAY

Glenn Research Center, NASA

• What's an Air Pocket?

Bacteria Grow More ... and Are More Deadly

Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH

• How Does Salmonella Contaminate Vegetables?

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...

Click here for more Space.com videos...

You Can't Burp Beer

4 Pines Brewing Company

• What Makes Us Burp?

A Rose by the Same Name Smells ... Di erent

• How Does Scent Travel?

You Sweat More

• What's It Like to Live In Space?

Isekai Cheat Magician

MORE ABOUT... LATEST

SEE MORE LATEST 

Dead Spacecraft on Mars Spotted in New Photos

Challenge Your Brain With This Must-Play Strategy Game. No Install.

These Cars Are So Loaded It's Hard to Believe They're So Cheap

You're Allowed To Do Anything You Want In This Game

Man Who Predicted 2020 Crash Says "Now Is The Time"

Where Do Black Holes Lead?

The Genius Hack Every Home Depot Shopper Should Know

President-elect Biden names 8-person NASA transition team

READ MORE  PLAY

Jupiter's ocean moon Europa probably glows in the dark

Arecibo Observatory suffers more damage as second cable

The Very Large Array: 40 years of groundbreaking radio

With pandemic thwarting workshops, NASA training for

Jim Bridenstine will step aside as NASA chief when President-

The top space stories of the week!

Asteroid Apophis is speeding up from sunlight as scientists

Cosmic bubbles may have forged dark matter, new theory

This bizarre planet could have supersonic winds in an

Scientists detect strange 'fast radio burst' from within our

Unpredictable space radio bursts may stem from asteroids

Hello again, Voyager 2! NASA beams 1st call to probe in

By Mike Wall November 04, 2020

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Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted

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3 Arecibo Observatory su ers more damage as second cable fails

4 The Very Large Array: 40 years of groundbreaking radio astronomy

5 Leonid meteor shower 2020: When, where & how to see it

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