How can there be fire in space without oxygen?

Inside you have the same air mixture as on Earth, but because gravity is millions of times smaller an open flame behaves significantly different. In space, of course, you can’t have any fires because there isn’t any oxidizer (i.e. oxygen) to sustain the combustion process.

Can you light a fire without oxygen?

A fire cannot burn without oxygen. The burning that a star does, then, is a nuclear reaction, and not a chemical one like the fires on Earth (when a candle burns, the atoms themselves remain unchanged: just the molecules are affected).

Do rocket engines burn in space?

NASA. “Rockets can’t fly in space! There’s no air for the engine to burn in space!

How do rockets fly with fire?

In order to move forward, a rocket releases high-pressure gases (produced as a result of a combustion reaction) from its rear section. Therefore, an action (the ejection of gases) triggers a reaction (i.e., the rocket moves forward).

What happens if you light a fire in space?

Fire is a different beast in space than it is on the ground. When flames burn on Earth, heated gases rise from the fire, drawing oxygen in and pushing combustion products out. In microgravity, hot gases don’t rise. Space flames can also burn at a lower temperature and with less oxygen than fires on Earth.

How do things burn in space?

But odd things happen in space, where gravity loses its grip on solids, liquids and gases. Without gravity, hot air expands but doesn’t move upward. The flame persists because of the diffusion of oxygen, with random oxygen molecules drifting into the fire.

Is there oxygen in space?

In space, there is very little breathable oxygen. A ground—based experiment by an experimental astrophysicist at Syracuse University found that oxygen atoms cling tightly to stardust. This prevents the oxygen atoms from joining together to form oxygen molecules.

Why do rockets carry liquid oxygen?

If there is no oxygen in space, how do rockets ignite their engines? Rockets carry an oxidizer, often in the form of liquid oxygen, to burn their engine fuel.

Do rockets carry oxygen?

Rockets carry an oxidizer, often in the form of liquid oxygen, to burn their engine fuel. That’s the fundamental difference between rockets and jets; the latter get oxygen from the air.

How does a rocket go into space?

The Short Answer: We launch things into space by putting them on rockets with enough fuel — called propellant — to boost them above most of Earth’s atmosphere. Once a rocket reaches the right distance from Earth, it releases the satellite or spacecraft.