Death and decay in space

If you ever ever be near the dead man, you should notice that his body began to change. These changes begin immediately after death. Among the most notable are the general pallor of the body, and cyanosis. When the heart ceases to pump blood through the body, it takes gravity. The blood begins to accumulate in the underlying tissues closest to the ground. Heavier red blood cells also fall down because of what the body appear the corpse spots.

Soon comes the rigor mortis. This is because the muscles become very stiff and inflexible, as if they were removed from the body and replaced with concrete copies. The body quickly cools down, the intensity of the process зависит a number of factors : the place where the body is, the time of year, the amount of fat in the body, took a man to death any medication or drugs. The combination of various conditions and symptoms help pathologists determine how much time passed from the moment of death, as well as whether the body was moved.



The above are just a manifestation of the death of a weak echo of the changes that take place after death. After the appearance of pallor, cyanosis, cooling and rigor mortis, it takes the bacteria. First of all we are talking about spoilage bacteria begin to eat organs of the body (it should be noted that many of our organs during the life just on the brink of an early stage of decomposition). They are joined by enzymes and anaerobic bacteria, which are also beginning to destroy the internal organs (due to which the latter are converted into the liquid), and muscle tissue. In the process, it produces acids and gases, because of which the body swells and exudes stench. Part of the liquids and gases exit through natural openings, but most of the remains in the body, is intact skin. Once the skin stops to contain rotting food, he becomes trudnoopoznavaemym. To a large extent, because you do not want to even approach him.

This is not over, but we will not continue this unpleasant description. It is enough that the bacteria play a crucial role in the decomposition of the dead body. On Earth, we have many ways to slow down the manifestation of this process (for example, бальзамированием, in which the body is removed from whole blood and replaced with a chemical "cocktail", including formaldehyde), to allow time to say goodbye to the deceased relatives and friends.



In case of death in the open space can several scenarios developments. Consider the case in which the body is outside the suit. No internal or external heat source promёrznet through the body quickly. Frankly, we still do not know exactly how long it will take the decomposition of the body in such conditions. It is possible that the body might drift forever. Well, or within really a long time. Of course, if not close to a star or a black hole, or another celestial body. Otherwise, the radiation can heat the body incredibly fast, because it is not protected by the atmosphere, as we on Earth.

Now let's talk about a time when close to a dead body without a spacesuit is a source of heat. For example, the outer layer of the atmosphere, when the temperature is high, but not so much that the body is burned. In this case, the body rapidly dehydrate, becoming similar to beef jerky (as you may recall, our body is largely composed of water). The vacuum rapidly sterilizes body. Recalling the crucial role of bacteria, it does not appear that the body will decompose under these conditions in a short time.



And the last option when a dead body is in a spacesuit. Certainly, the process of expansion will accelerate significantly. After the death of the bacteria in the human body immediately begin to destroy it, however, in the presence of a heat source. If it is not, the body quickly freeze and the expansion will not have time to develop.

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/219171/