• Question: Do you become taller in space? whay?

    Asked by Elena Sahra to Monique on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Monique Henson

      Monique Henson answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      I think so! I had to look this up to double check – it sounds really bizarre so I wanted to be sure. Plus, I’d quite like to be a bit taller, so that would be an extra bonus of going to space for me.

      According this, they’ve found that astronauts get a little bit taller whilst they’re on the space station. When you’re on the space station you don’t feel gravity pulling you down. On Earth, your body is being pulled down all the time, which compresses your spine making you a little bit shorter. On the space station there’s no force to compress your spine, so you grow a bit taller. Unfortunately for me, once you get back down to Earth your spine will compress again, so it’s not a long term way to grow taller.

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