Friday, 28 February 2014

temperature - What would happen if an ice cube is left in space?

It depends on where in outer space you are.



If you simply stick it in orbit around the Earth, it'll sublimate: the mean surface temperature of something at Earth's distance from the Sun is about 220K, which is solidly in the vapor phase for water in a vacuum, and the solid-vapor transition at that temperature doesn't pass through the liquid phase. On the other hand, if you stick your ice cube out in the Oort Cloud, it'll grow: the mean surface temperature is 40K or below, well into the solid phase, so it'll pick up (or be picked up by) gas and other objects in space.



A comet is a rough approximation to an ice cube. If you think of what happens to a comet at various places, that's about what would happen to your ice cube.

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