I was watching a few sci-fi movies and was wondering the real science explaining what would happen if you were to be subject to the conditions of outerspace.
I read the wikipedia article on space exposure, but was still confused. If a person was about the same distance from the sun as earth is, would they still freeze to death? (as shown in the movie Sunshine)
I'm reading from all sorts of sites with conflicting information about what would actually happen when a person is exposed to the vacuum of space...
Answer
You'd freeze to death faster in the Atlantic ocean.
Space has essentially no thermal conductivity. All the heat you lose will be radiated away. According to the Stefan-Boltzman law, $W = \sigma T^4$, you would lose at most 500 watts per square meter of body surface area. By contrast, the convective heat transfer coefficient in water is about 12,500 watts/square meter / degree Kelvin temperature difference. So, I think freezing would be the least of your concerns.
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