Everyone loves hearing the stories about how astronauts go to the toilet in space (trust me so do I!) But one thing I’ve always wondered about is what would happen if an astronaut burped in space. The more I researched and read, I learned that astronauts can’t actually burp in space. Because it would be mean of me to be selfish and keep this information to myself, I thought I’d share it with you in today’s blog.
What is a burp?
The first thing to explore is burping… I’m sure you’ve all wondered.
Let’s start this blog with why we burp.
When we swallow food and drink we swallow air along with it. The air gathers above our digestive system and we burp to get that air back out of our bodies. Burping is actually a really important thing to do, if we didn’t burp we’d feel miserable and feel like we constantly had indigestion.
You might have noticed that you burp more when you drink a fizzy drink quickly. That’s because you’re swallowing more air, so there’s more air to get back out of you.
The next time you burp and someone gives you a disgusted look, just remind them that you’re performing an important bodily function by burping.
But what makes the food stay inside us when we eat it? For that, we need to explore something called gravity.
But what exactly is gravity?
What is gravity?
Gravity is a force that is keeping us all from floating away. It is pulling everything – trees, people, the sky, the ocean- towards the Earth’s centre. Gravity is a good thing, but it sure does make breakfast a lot more boring than it could be.
I want to start a movement to create gravity-free breakfasts. Unleash the cereal so it floats around then you have to swim around to catch it all. You could try it in a swimming pool but the cereal would go soggy in all the water.
Gravity was first discovered and explained by Sir Issac Newton all the way back in the 1600s and it changed the way people looked at the world. A couple of hundred years later Albert Einstein added to and improved on Newton’s understanding of gravity.
Everything has a gravitational pull, but the larger the mass of the object the more gravity it has. The sun’s gravitational pull is so large it’s able to keep the Earth and all the other planets in our Solar System in orbit around it.
You may have noticed that the Earth’s gravitational pull is keeping the moon moving around the planet as well.
Gravity is also keeping our food inside our bodies when we burp. You may already have guessed where this is going, but keep reading to see if you’re right.
When it comes to burping in space, one vital thing is missing.
Gravity…
You can’t burp in space
When you’re in space all the food, liquids and gas are all floating together in what I can only imagine are the most disgusting-looking bubbles ever to exist. (Not actually bubbles but a good way to imagine it)
So when we burp in space it isn’t just gas that comes back up. Without gravity to hold it down, everything comes back out of your mouth. This means instead of burping, you’re actually sick.
Space food is good, but I don’t think you’d want to eat it twice, particularly when you’d seen it floating around in your helmet.
What’s your favourite fact about space? Let me know in the comment section below!
