How you'd really die in space: What sci-fi gets right (and wrong) about extra-terrestrial expirations

You've seen it in a thousand sci-fi movies : an astronaut is ejected into space and freezes instantly, then shatters like an ice cube. A hairline crack appears in a helmet, and a character asphyxiates in seconds, desperately pawing at their spacesuit as they sink to their knees, and their skin turns blue. Maybe a sleek ship is being chased by enemy fighters through a dense asteroid field, and one of them smashes into a massive space rock and is explosively atomized. In reality, the true horrors of space aren't instant: they're methodical. Space kills with patience, and often much more painfully than the instant deaths depicted in cinema, unfolding over seconds, days, minutes, or even years. In the words of astrophysicist and author of the book " The Scale of the Universe ", Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, "many things in space are lethal (including lack of oxygen, lack of air pressure, thermal extremes, radiation), so the key question is which would kill you first." Here's how some of the fatal dangers of living in space would actually shuffle you off this mortal coil. Grim warning: it's like a spoiler warning, but just because we're covering some pretty grim topics here. You have been warned. …