How many times have we seen in science fiction and horror movies what is supposed to happen to a human body in space? Sometimes it freezes, others it explodes... but what is really happening to it?
What happens to the human body in space?
The truth is that in reality it is not very dramatic what happens, but it is quite fascinating. It is known from the experiments that were made in experimental habitats in the 60s with animals and humans.
The first thing you notice is the lack of air. For 15 seconds the body uses the oxygen reserves dedicated to the blood supply.
Then, losing the external pressure would cause the gas inside your lungs to expand until they rupture and release all the air in the circulatory system.
Also the skin will begin to expand as the body water begins to vaporize in the absence of atmospheric pressure. Although you do not explode like a balloon, you would see yourself with a considerable volume.
And then what happens?
Although the circulatory system can regulate blood pressure, you finally go into shock. The tongue begins to boil until you lose consciousness.
However, you would not freeze, as we have seen in some films, even in spite of extreme temperatures. The heat stays in the body for a while.
And finally the time comes for decomposition. But because there is no oxygen in space, several cases can happen. If you are near a source of heat, that is, several million kilometers from a star, your body would end up mummified. But if it is the opposite, if you freeze once you leave the body heat and wander for millions of years.
In your body, the anaerobic bacteria would degrade you little by little without the help of the aerobias, that would not have oxygen. The body would dehydrate because of the microorganisms that need water to survive, and of course, if you are not close to a star or source of heat, you will be a statue of ice until a sun catches you, you are burned by the entrance into the Atmosphere of a planet or you shatter the crash of an asteroid.
In some films we have seen deaths in space that sound very epic and even poetic. But the truth is very different. It is obvious that our body is not made for the emptiness outside the Earth. And this universe so immense that it costs to imagine its size. So we better take care of this world. That it is not so nice to think how our body decomposes outside the Earth's atmosphere.