• Question: Do you grow when you go to space because your spine decompresses due to no gravity?

    Asked by ishyk123 to Ashley, Bernard, Carsten, MariaMagdalena, Monique on 17 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Monique Henson

      Monique Henson answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Great question! I talked a little bit about this here, but you’re right on the mark already. Yep, you do get a bit taller when you go to space, because your spine decompresses.

      I’d add one small thing to that though – it doesn’t just have to be due to there being no gravity. Astronauts on the space station still get a little bit taller than they were on Earth, even though they are still subject to gravity. Instead, it’s just that they (and the space station) are in free fall around the Earth. That means the effective force they feel due to gravity is zero – which is why their spines decompress. There’s a good explanation of this here.

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