What happens to water in space? Instead of spilling everywhere, it holds together in these little globs. You can even hit them around like you’re playing tennis. So, why exactly does all of this happen? The floating around is thanks to micro gravity. That’s something people experience on the international space station - where people or objects appear to be weightless.
It’s sometimes referred to as zero gravity, which is actually misleading because a small amount of gravity can be found everywhere in space.
The reason why the water clumps together in little shapes has to do with something called surface tension. You may have already noticed back on earth that water acts as if it’s got a thin plastic film on its surface. It’s the reason why little water skippers can walk on water. It’s also why water droplets clump together and can be taller than the surface they’re on.
This happens because the molecules that make up water are attracted to each other. Like all good mates, they cling together and it takes a bit of force to break through.
Without the massive gravitational pull we experience on earth, there’s nowhere near as much force trying to pull the water molecules apart. As for why water in micro gravity often takes the shape of a sphere: its because, when the molecules pack in tight, that particular shape that has the smallest surface area on the outside.
So, what happens when water goes outside the ISS into space? Liquid water is pretty much Goldilocks; It needs just the right conditions to stop it from boiling and becoming a gas or freezing and becoming a solid.
Freezing happens when it’s really cold and boiling happens when it’s really hot. In space, there’s pretty much no pressure and it can be very, very cold.
So, does water boil or does it freeze? Believe it or not, it does both! Astronauts have seen this happen while watching their pee get shot into space. It immediately boils and then that vapor passes immediately into a solid state. So, it goes from liquid pee, to pee gas, to very tiny pee crystals!
Unfortunately, astronauts haven’t filmed this amazing pee show, but there’s a very similar thing that happens on earth, and it happens when someone throws a pot of boiling water in the air on a very, very cold day. The water almost immediately finishes boiling & becomes a gas, which then freezes and turns into ice crystals or snow!
Very cool!
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