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Asked by igloo23 to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 14 Mar 2012.
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Catherine Rix answered on 14 Mar 2012:
The snow would actually change into a gas! Space is a vacuum because there are very few particles there so the pressure is very low. In a vacuum solids and liquids change into gases at much lower temperatures. This is why on Earth if you climb a high mountain you can boil a kettle at a lower temperature than at sea level because the air pressure is less.
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Adam Stevens answered on 14 Mar 2012:
That’s a really interesting question.
It would actually sublime, which means that it would go from a solid straight into a gas. This is because there’s so little pressure in space that volatile materials (like snow) basically burst apart from inside (there’s no air pressure to hold them together).
It’s not really to do with the temperature in this case.
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Karen Masters answered on 14 Mar 2012:
Well we think comets are basically dirty snowballs in space. And they don’t melt – the inner bit stays solid, and the outer bit goes straight from solid to gas (it’s called sublimation) when sunlight hits it.
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Nazim Bharmal answered on 18 Mar 2012:
If you could keep snow solid, then once in space, if you release it then it would sublime: going straight to steam, like dry ice turns into CO2 gas without turning into a liquid first.
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Leila Battison answered on 19 Mar 2012:
It would sublime. I think sublime is a really awesome word!
Subliming is when something turns form a solid straight to a gas, usually because of really low pressures.
It’s sublime!
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