] If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space
] for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent
] injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your
] lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when
] ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your
] Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory
] predicts -- and animal experiments confirm -- that
] otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury.
] You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not
] freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.
]
] Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends",
] certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of
] skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or
] so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of
] oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two
] minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known. Something interesting you'll never need to know. Human Body in a Vacuum |
