We could say that we’re posting this video because this was done for a noble, scientific mission. Which it was; a fire on a space station is dangerous in ways we can’t even begin to imagine, because fire in space burns at a lower temperature and behaves far, far differently, and more dangerously, in the absence of gravity (for example, no gravity, nothing keeping the oxygen close to the ground).
We could say that we’re posting this video because it shows the beauty of physics and chemistry. Which it does.
But realistically, we’re posting this video of scientists on the International Space Station aerosolizing some fuel and sticking a match in it to see what happens because that’s pretty much exactly what we would do if we were in zero gravity.
Video under the jump
https://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
[ via New Scientist ]
image courtesy Viacom