When a person dies on earth, because there are bacteria on our earth, after a few days on our earth, the body starts decomposing (decomposition).
But if a person dies in space, it depends on the situation, whether he dies inside the space suit or outside the space suit...
According to the first situation, if he is wearing a suit but suddenly some space debris hits and the suit
If I got a hole, all the oxygen in his suit would come out, and he would die, but if for some reason. If he dies inside the space suit and there is oxygen in it, his body will not decompose in the presence of oxygen. And it will float in such space for many years.
Now let's suppose he is not wearing a space suit, what will happen?
If he wasn't wearing a space suit, he would. Death will happen in 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
As soon as an astronaut tries to breathe, his lungs will inflate due to internal pressure and then burst...
If its body does not come under the influence of the sun, it will continue to rotate like this for millions of years, provided that it does not collide with any celestial body, nor will it decompose because there is no atmosphere in space. His body will not decompose due to the absence of bacteria.
Now, knowing whether an astronaut has died in space or not, the answer is that eighteen astronauts have died during space missions so far.
NASA's space shuttle was involved in both of the worst disasters. Due to a failure in a sealant ring that allowed hot gas from the boosters used to lift the spacecraft in the first two minutes of flight to hit the enormous main external tanks containing hydrogen-oxygen fuel, the Challenger space shuttle exploded on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after takeoff. Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire teacher selected for a special NASA program to send civilians into space, was among the seven crew members who perished. Due to many viewers, many of whom were schoolchildren, who witnessed the Challenger disaster live on television, it remains perhaps the most well-known incident in spaceflight history.
When the space shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry into the atmosphere of the Earth in 2003, seven more astronauts perished. During the launch, a piece of the foam insulation had separated, causing damage to a wing and sealing the mission's fate before it even began. NASA was harshly criticized in a subsequent report for allowing the incident to occur and for failing to intervene during the mission.
The remaining four cosmonauts from the Soviet Union were all killed in spaceflight. The first was Vladimir Komarov on April 24, 1967, when his Soyuz 1 mission's landing capsule's parachute failed to open. The Soyuz spacecraft, which is still used to carry people to the International Space Station, made its first crewed flight on this mission. When the Soyuz 11 capsule depressurized before re-entry on their way back from the first time humans had ever been on a space station, Salyut 1, in 1971, all three members of the crew perished.
During preparation for space flight, 13 more cosmonauts and astronauts died. A fire that broke out on the launch pad of the Apollo 1 mission in January 1967 is perhaps the most well-known incident. Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, the second American to walk in space, and Ed White, the first American to walk in space, were the three people killed. In the wake of the catastrophe, the Apollo program to reach the moon was close to being canceled. Crewed flights were halted for 20 months as a result.
I would say that a freeze dried state is where the body would find itself. While there may exist anaerobic organisms that may well function without oxygen, I can't image their being able to function within a vacuum. There is this scene in "Mission to Mars" where in desperation, the lead astronaut removes his helmet to prevent any further efforts to retrieve him from an orbit when it was physically impossible to do so.
We really have not had any deaths of astronauts outside of the atmosphere to observe.
"If he dies inside the space suit and there is oxygen in it, his body will not decompose in the presence of oxygen."
And yet the vast majority of corpses, both human and animal, decompose quite well exposed to the normal atmosphere of around 21% oxygen.
But you are right (to the best of our knowledge) that a body will only decompose to a certain point without atmosphere (we are, after all, full of bacteria and oxygen - decomposition will at least continue until that is gone).
Wilderness, thanks for dropping by on this road less travelled.
You are right as well, our bodies contain a great of oxygen and bacteria and until that is exhausted standard decomposition would continue for some time after death through suffocation and depressurization
It is all still disconcerting even when it so far beyond life's common dangers.
What? You've never had all the air sucked out of your lungs and died as a result?!?
(I thought that was SOP for liberals; every so often they have to take a bit of time off of life and go get more instructions from the Demons below. )
I dunno, it may be better to depart this world through explosive decompression than to live with an infestation of Republicans in Washington?
LOL How about if we just take all the politicians to space and decompress the lot of them?
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Why can't you light a candle in a spaceship?
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What is a spacewalk?
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Why hasn't NASA started sending children to the International Space Station?
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I yes... what makes you think it so?If no... why is it impossible?
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