The Magic and Wonders of Space

           Astronauts have described space as an “alien” environment where things behave differently than they do on Earth. Some properties of space that makes it so much different than Earth is the fact that space does not have oxygen, and that the gravity is so little that anything in space will experience apparent weightlessness.

During an experiment on a shuttle,
astronauts discovered that flames
break up into flame balls and float
like UFO's

One example of how materials act differently in space is fire. On Earth, when a fire is burning, the fire burns with a teardrop shape because warm air always rises on Earth. However, when a fire is lit on a space shuttle, things are completely different. The fire on the shuttle doesn’t stay in the teardrop shape; instead they break off into flame balls and just float around. The amazing thing is that scientists have not figured out how the fire burns and keeps burning.

Another example of a material that acts differently in space is the human brain. The brain has to adapt to some unusual scenarios in space. Some scenarios when an astronaut are in orbit, there is no up or down and things don’t fall; they float. So, the one question people ask is how does the brain adapt to the apparent weightlessness? Well, the brain, being the incredible thing it already is, does something even more incredible; it creates a model, or a mental set of instructions, which tell the body how to adapt to the weightlessness the body experiences. Scientists have not yet figured out how the brain creates these models, but what they do know is that it is truly magical.

Even flowers and plants react differently to the unusual scenarios of space. The plants and flowers actually smell differently. In 1998, a mini rose was sent into space and when it came back, the rose had developed a distinct aroma that was like nothing on Earth. Just like the flames and the brain, scientists have not figured out why the flowers develop a distinct aroma that is very different than a roses normal odor on Earth.  All of these materials have very strange reactions to the unusual experiences of being in space.