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Fire in zero gravity. (x-post from r/pics) (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by OverratedLunchbox

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[–]Calgetorix 42 points43 points ago

It's in microgravity (but microgravity is approximately zero gravity). If there is no solid in the way, it would look like this.

[–]fuckin_a 34 points35 points ago

I am smoking a cigarette deep in the vacuum of space and can confirm this.

[–]dicer999 4 points5 points ago

If I could do one thing in life it would be to smoke a fat joint in deep space.

[–]Hazelrat10 8 points9 points ago

If I could do one thing in life it'd probably be save humanity from destroying itself or something like that

[–]Khalexus 1 point2 points ago

Is it going out almost instantly, or what? If so, I wonder why that is? Can anyone explain?

[–]Calgetorix 2 points3 points ago

Somebody has asked on /r/askscience. Some of the first comments in this thread explain it pretty well.

[–]Khalexus 0 points1 point ago

Awesome, thanks for that!

[–]danecarney 0 points1 point ago

Helpful people like you are awesome.

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 0 points1 point ago

Flame is only long like that because the gas in the flame is rising. It is rising because it is hot, and hot gas is less dense, so it moves upwards like a cork in a pool when there is gravity.

When there is no gravity, there is no reason for it to move up. Fuel and air mixture will move outward from the nozzle and burn at a certain distance from the source, making a sphere.

The colour difference is due to the fact that the candle is not burning efficiently and is producing soot particles. When these soot particles are heated up, they give off yellow light. The flame in space is obviously a hydrogen/air mixture or some other gas and air.

[–]Raicuparta 1 point2 points ago

It doesn't change the flame in any visible way, the one in the video forms a full sphere but the one in the picture can't because there's something solid in the way.

[–]Calgetorix 0 points1 point ago

You might be correct actually. I better correct myself.

[–]marburg 1 point2 points ago

Reddit brought me here.

tyerbnm 17 minutes ago

Get your shit together, tyerbnm!

[–]Tallain 0 points1 point ago

That's kind of crazy looking.

[–]gallowglass10191 20 points21 points ago

"Have you ever seen fire in zero gravity...its beautiful. Its like liquid, slides over everything. Comes up in waves, wave after wave"

[–]JapanSage 7 points8 points ago

event horizon?

[–]gallowglass10191 1 point2 points ago

Awesome movie, been at least 10 years since I've seen it. Guess I have plans tonight.

[–]Tallain 0 points1 point ago

Yes.

[–]JustinHopewell 0 points1 point ago

That line is what I remember most from that movie. Up until that point I had never thought about how fire would behave in zero gravity.

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 0 points1 point ago

It is governed by exactly the same equations as liquid.

[–]CelebrantJoker 6 points7 points ago

Someone explain this to me please

[–]hawk135 13 points14 points ago

Heat rises, which is what causes the flame to be shaped the way it is normally, here on earth. If you lit a candle out on a spaceship, then there would be no heat rising since there is no up or down or gravity in space, the flame attempts to approximate itself to the most efficient shape it can find, in this case a sphere.

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 1 point2 points ago

Also they are different types of flames. The candle is an example of a nonpremixed flame, and the one in space is premixed. If you had a premixed flame on earth it would look similar but elongated.

[–]Dexiro 11 points12 points ago

Hot air is less dense than cool air. In gravity the heavy cold air is pulled downwards while the lighter hot air is pushed up. That's why the flame travels upwards :P

In zero gravity there's no air being pushed up or down, so the flame burns in a sphere shape.

[–]danthemango 2 points3 points ago

You can think you the hot air rising, but more importantly (relevant to gravitation), you should understand why the air needs gravity to rise. The rising of less dense gases is the result of cold air "falling" all around it. If you see a Helium balloon you can remember the effect is happening because of the falling of the air around it

[–]foursecondpin -2 points-1 points ago

Gravity is like a can of lighter fluid and when you increase gravity it puts more oxygen in the fire to burn. Without

[–]pwn_ya 5 points6 points ago

/r/fireporn

[–]Bwhitmore0917 2 points3 points ago

from the looks is this similar to the affects of lighting hand sanitizer on fire the flame looks almost the same minus the floating part

[–]cabritar 1 point2 points ago

If fire uses oxygen to burn, how is there fire in space or even micro gravity?

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 0 points1 point ago

Same way people breath in space. They take oxygen with them.

[–]cabritar 0 points1 point ago

So the vacuum of the space has oxygen? Of is the flame running on liquid oxygen?

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 0 points1 point ago

It's not "in space," its in a lab, probably on the international space station, where they have an atmosphere inside.

[–]cabritar 0 points1 point ago

Ahh so they are in space (zero gravity) but in an environment that has an atmosphere. It all makes so much more sense now...

[–]TheRoguePractitioner 0 points1 point ago

Even if there was no atmosphere (it's hard to tell from the picture with no context) the flame could still exist in space if the fuel and oxygen were premixed. Rockets work in space because they carry hydrogen and oxygen with them, them mix them together and ignite them.

[–]cabritar -1 points0 points ago

Kind of like the liquid oxygen comment I made?

[–]stillblazzinn 0 points1 point ago

So why do flames rise? Heat. Now why does heat rise in the direction opposite of gravity instead of just away from their origin like in the vacuum picture OP posted?

[–]Stikine 0 points1 point ago

Hot air rises because it is hotter and therefore less dense (lighter at the same volume) the flame heats up the air causing it to want to rise because it becomes lighter than the cold air around it.

In short: heat rises because gravity wants cold not hot air closer to the ground.

[–]stillblazzinn 0 points1 point ago

I think you misunderstood me, I understand that and now I think I may have answered my own question.. You could say the flame in the vacuum is opposing gravity because the only gravity that exists was the micro gravity the wick produces. Making the flame a spherical shape directing away from the origin.

[–]Stikine 1 point2 points ago

I'm not sure I understand you, the flame that is spherical in shape is in a microgravity environment not a vacuum. And the flame is spherical in shape because that is the most efficient shape for the expanding gases to form, without gravity there is nothing forcing the higher density gases to fall so the lower density gases expand outwards displacing the higher density gases.

[–]Wilcows 1 point2 points ago

there is no vacuum. Its zero gravity. Flames cannot exist in a vacuum since there is no oxygen in a vacuum

Read the title better next time.

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