If Space Is A Vacuum?

Mike Thomas wrote:

Why don't atmosphereic gases get sucked into space considering the vacuum
pressure involved that surrrounds us?

Gravity

Actually some gas (hydrogen, helium come to mind) atoms and molecules
can attain escape velocity and do escape the Earth.


BTW there is no "vacuum pressure"... atmospheric pressure comes from the
weight of the atmosphere, caused by the Earth's gravity.

Escape Velocity
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/phys...eVelocity.html

Atmospheric Pressure
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/phys...cPressure.html

Pressure
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Pressure.html

Sam Wormley wrote:

BTW there is no "sucking"... atmospheric pressure comes from the
weight of the atmosphere, caused by the Earth's gravity.

So that "great sucking sound" that Ross Perot said about NAFTA, was
actually the US economy being pressured to send it's jobs out of the
country. :-)


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"Gig Thomas" wrote in message
...
If space is a vacuum how does a hot ball of gas stay together as long as
some astronomers claim it has? Would all the gas be sucked off into space.
I remember seeing a move about outer space where a space mans suit had a
problem and his eyes popped out and all from the vacuum and how Arnolds
eyes almost popped out on Mars. See that was from the lack of oxygen.
Is there something in space that sort of makes up for the lack of Oxygen?
Is that how the Sun keeps from fizzing away. My son has been asking me
about this and I've been telling him this business I heard about gravity
and all but golly space is so big and the sun even though it's small
compared to the earth is still much smaller than space if you know what I
mean. Something else has to be holding it together or else I have the
whole
gravity wave thing wrong.
Thanks for you patience with a novice.

If you all don't mind I might as a couple other things about the Sun that
have been pondering me.

Gravity. The same reason the Earth, Venus, and Titan have atmospheres.

Arnold's movie was "Total Recall". The "eye-popping" was rather poor and
inaccurate.

In message , Gig Thomas
writes
If space is a vacuum how does a hot ball of gas stay together as long as
some astronomers claim it has?

Gravity. The same reason why the Earth still has an atmosphere and
Newton saw the apple fall from a tree.

Would all the gas be sucked off into space.
I remember seeing a move about outer space where a space mans suit had a
problem and his eyes popped out and all from the vacuum and how Arnolds
eyes almost popped out on Mars. See that was from the lack of oxygen.

No that was Hollywood special effects. Stanley Kubrick probably got it
more nearly right in 2001 a space odyssey. You would suffer extreme
discomfort due to pressure differentials in the ears and lungs, and
maybe nitrogen bubbles in the blood but it would be survivable provided
you had some oxygen fairly quickly. Not all that much different to
having explosive decompression of an airline cabin at maximum cruise
height.

Is there something in space that sort of makes up for the lack of Oxygen?
Is that how the Sun keeps from fizzing away.

A minuscule amount of the suns surface does escape - look up solar wind.
But the amount is so small as not to matter. In HHGG terms the sun is
*BIG*. Gravity holds it all together, radiation pressure from light
escaping tries to blow it apart - the suns size is set by their being in
balance.

We see aurora when there is a stronger than normal flux of fast
particles escape from the sun in our direction.

My son has been asking me
about this and I've been telling him this business I heard about gravity
and all but golly space is so big and the sun even though it's small
compared to the earth is still much smaller than space if you know what I
mean. Something else has to be holding it together or else I have the whole
gravity wave thing wrong.

The sun is much much bigger and massively heavier than the Earth. Venus
recently passed in front of the sun so you could see an inner planet
and the suns disk together.

Thanks for you patience with a novice.

If you all don't mind I might as a couple other things about the Sun that
have been pondering me.

You probably want to find an introductory astronomy book for your
youngster. Something with pictures and facts about the planets in the
solar system.

His questions are reasonable but need decent answers given at the right
level. Anyone with an interest in science should be encouraged.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

Wfoley2 wrote:
A ball of gas WOULD be sucked off into space if its gravity did not overcome
the speed of the gases motion.

Strictly I suppose there would be NO "sucking off", just acceleration
into the void.

Steve

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 14:32:13 -0700, Gig Thomas
wrote:

If space is a vacuum how does a hot ball of gas stay together as long as
some astronomers claim it has? Would all the gas be sucked off into space.
I remember seeing a move about outer space where a space mans suit had a
problem and his eyes popped out and all from the vacuum and how Arnolds
eyes almost popped out on Mars. See that was from the lack of oxygen.
Is there something in space that sort of makes up for the lack of Oxygen?
Is that how the Sun keeps from fizzing away. My son has been asking me
about this and I've been telling him this business I heard about gravity
and all but golly space is so big and the sun even though it's small
compared to the earth is still much smaller than space if you know what I
mean. Something else has to be holding it together or else I have the whole
gravity wave thing wrong.
Thanks for you patience with a novice.

If you all don't mind I might as a couple other things about the Sun that
have been pondering me.




'cause it's rewee unbaweevabo.

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 14:32:13 -0700, Gig Thomas wrote:

If space is a vacuum how does a hot ball of gas stay together as long as
some astronomers claim it has? Would all the gas be sucked off into space.
I remember seeing a move about outer space where a space mans suit had a
problem and his eyes popped out and all from the vacuum and how Arnolds
eyes almost popped out on Mars. See that was from the lack of oxygen.
Is there something in space that sort of makes up for the lack of Oxygen?
Is that how the Sun keeps from fizzing away. My son has been asking me
about this and I've been telling him this business I heard about gravity
and all but golly space is so big and the sun even though it's small
compared to the earth is still much smaller than space if you know what I
mean. Something else has to be holding it together or else I have the whole
gravity wave thing wrong.
Thanks for you patience with a novice.

If you all don't mind I might as a couple other things about the Sun that
have been pondering me.

A vacuum does not suck. Molecules get pushed into vacuums, because there
are other molecules on the non-vacuum side that keep bumping into them
(the first molecules), but nothing in the vacuum to push back.

In other words, things get blown into a vacuum, not sucked.

There is, in fact, a great deal of outward pressure in the sun, but it's
held together by gravity. It's a constant tug of war between the energy
output by core fusion, and the inward pull of gravity. Eventually, when
it runs out of hydrogen, the sun will contract into a small star called a
white dwarf (the outer layers will be shed into a huge expanding shell of
gas first, though - this is all billions of years in the future).

As for the bit in Total Recall, it's not the lack of oxygen, but the lack
of atmospheric pressure. Your body pushes outward with the same force as
the atmosphere pushes inward. If you were to suddenly jump into a vacuum,
you'd have some bloating issues, though not quite like in Total Recall.
Your saliva would boil as well, regardless of the temperature. If you had
an open cut, your blood would boil out of it as well.

--
- Mike

Remove 'spambegone.net' and reverse to send e-mail.

A vacuum does not suck. Molecules get pushed into vacuums, because there
are other molecules on the non-vacuum side that keep bumping into them
(the first molecules), but nothing in the vacuum to push back.

In other words, things get blown into a vacuum, not sucked.



So this is a "what gets blown as opposed to sucked" issue?

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 17:43:58 GMT, "Mike Ruskai"
wrote:

A vacuum does not suck. Molecules get pushed into vacuums, because there
are other molecules on the non-vacuum side that keep bumping into them
(the first molecules), but nothing in the vacuum to push back.

In other words, things get blown into a vacuum, not sucked.

I don't disagree with your assessment of the physical reality here, but from a
purely linguistic standpoint, I think it is fair to say that vacuums "suck".
What is suction, but the movement of a gas or liquid because of a pressure
differential? Just because there is no magical force provided by the vacuum
pulling particles in doesn't mean it isn't sucking.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Gig Thomas...The George Bush of astronomy