Does a body decompose in space?

Hypothetically, If someone was on a spaceship outside our galaxy and jumped out into space and died, what would happen to their corpse?

Let's say the body is nowhere near a star, galaxy, or any other source of energy.

Would the body start to decompose/decay or could it be preserved forever?

As a wanna be scientist and watching MANY scifi films. I would say it stays preserved due to no moisture / heat or air for bacteria to spread

I guess that the bacteria inside your body would start to decompose your body, but would freeze to death in short time.


Would be a nice question for "What If", I think.

reply to post by DeepVisions


You fly through outer space accumulating debris until you become a giant charged ball of nonsense known as a comet.

In all seriousness though I think between the temperature, radiation, and lack of atmosphere your body would eventually break apart but not from decomposition.

reply to post by DeepVisions


And this information helps us how?

I would venture a guess of, since space is so cold.. or hot... wait.. yes.. I just said HOT..

Have a look at this article.

Space.com

It's all about "Location, Location, Location".

This is as accurate as I can venture a guess. Depending on your location, you will either be a frozen block of flesh, or burn up into ashes.

Some parts of space are hot! Gas between stars, as well as the solar wind, both seem to be what we call "empty space," yet they can be more than a thousand degrees, even millions of degrees.

Fascinating, isn't it?

MadMax9
reply to post by DeepVisions

 

And this information helps us how?

I dont know, maybe we should start sending the deceased into space for others to eventually find and study.

reply to post by DeepVisions

A body would decompose until it has cooled down. It would cool down slowly. Remember it is in a vacuum and what do we use vacuum flasks for !!!! The only loss of heat is via radiation ie infrared emitting from the body. There would be a thermal gradient from the warm inside to the cold surface where the heat would radiate away.

Rule1 : Ignore the movies!

reply to post by yorkshirelad


what is causing the "blindness" when you surround yourself with man made deception you fail to see the truth even if it hits you in the face

reply to post by OrphanApology


Kind of a romantic idea to think of becoming a comet after death in space....

reply to post by cosmicexplorer


Yeah, I can see it now:

Comet: A Love Story

reply to post by MadMax9


What do you mean "helps us how"???

It's a thirst for knowledge!

I think the body would be frozen in tact, unless of course, it splattered against the windshield of a UFO

reply to post by DeepVisions


What made you wonder about this?
Are you on the Mars trip short list?
Really interesting question though, I must say.

I can honestly say that I have never wondered about this, but now that you mention it, I got curious too.

I'm glad some members were able to come up with an answer.
Even though I'm pretty sure I will never have to worry about it.

reply to post by MadMax9


Three words:

General. Chit. Chat.

Think about it.

reply to post by DeepVisions


It depends on the exact conditions, how much background radiation, the ambient temperature in the region of space, how much solar heat and shadow exposure, not all forms of decomposition need active bacteria as chemical interactions can still take place and the body is essentially a large collection of molecules, now expose a molecule to enough radiation and you will potentially have atomic seperation and molecular breakdown but it would probably take a while longer than say on earth and as the bacteria would be killed or dormant you can cancel out any biological activity, I suspect you would end up with a freeze dried husk slowly turning to dust through a process of molecular destabilisation but it would take a good long while to complete it's disintegration and the dust of it's break down would likely clump together, maybe retain it's original shape but become more and more brittle and fragile.

There may or may not be a soviet capsule which was rumored to have overshot an attempt at a moon orbit and become lost in a solar orbit, the soviets were paranoid about secrecy and such a failure would likely have been expunged from there records but it is most likely just an urban legend, still they did cause the death's of several cosmonauts and there oposite number at NASA had an entire luner astronaut team in training whom as you know were killed in an oxygen fire in the most horrible fashion as there space suits would have made there deaths slow and painful, after there team leader gus grissom had expressed reservations publicly about the abillity to land the lunar lander module as even a few weeks before they had been unable to land a mockup safely on earth, he said this publicly and upset some very powerful people which is probably why he needed to be silenced and a more compliant agent put in his place for the apollo missions.
news.bbc.co.uk...
It is a story that resonates even today with the moon conspiracy theorists and weather the first missions to the moon where actually real (I believe many were but they were vastly exagerated in cost and many of them may have been fake altogether while they money was syphoned off but black operations during the vietnam war.
So Are there any examples of a decaying human body in space, possibly if the soviet story is true but as far as we know not any American body's.
Then again it may have all happened before a long time ago.

Now you hear about the scam of the body on the moon, well that is probably dis info but although most people say rock study this,

And here is what I make of it,


It is an interesting question you ask but not easily or readily answered.

MadMax9
reply to post by DeepVisions

 

And this information helps us how?

God forbid someone be curious about something.
Go back to the TV, you don't have to think there.

Rainbowresidue
reply to post by DeepVisions

 

What made you wonder about this?
Are you on the Mars trip short list?

Haha no, i'm content with Earth for now. I saw a trailer for the film Gravity and the question came to mind.


The replies seem to corroborate my initial thought that a good amount of preservation is possible under the right conditions.

It's definitely an interesting idea to think about.