|
From CNet News:
Here on planet Earth we're used to flames -- whether from a candle or
campfire -- reaching upward to the sky with slender limbs hungry for
oxygen and driven by rising hot air. But in space, sans our planet's
strong gravitational pull, flames are more likely to take the shape of
eerie fireballs.
Within the flame of a regular candle wick, there's quite a bit going
on. As the video below released this week by NASA explains, molecules
from the wick are being cracked apart and vaporized by the flame, then
combined with oxygen to produce light, heat, carbon dioxide, and water,
as well as soot.
In recent years we've become quite familiar with how flames can extend
and expand quickly in their greedy quest for more fuel and oxygen;
witness countless western wildfires of the past decade. But researchers
aboard the International Space Station
have observed that flames in microgravity behave much differently,
staying in a small spherical shape and letting oxygen molecules come to
them.
Read the whole article and watch the video
|