Explain what will happen in space if ?

Question

I put a chicken egg to orbit the sun about 0.3 AU from it.

I am curious about what will happen to the egg, if exposed to vacuum and electromagnetic radiation from sun.

And, will it be safe for baseline human consumption ?

Answer 1

Most chicken eggs have a small air-sac at the non-pointed end of the egg - I'll guess that this is a fresh chicken egg that you're discussing.

I suspect that this cavity would cause the shell to burst the moment you evacuated the airlock of your craft.

The rest of the egg would then rapidly outgas water vapour - and it's likely that the rest of the egg shell would be disrupted.

You'll then have a gently expanding egg-debris cloud, with the egg white bubbling through water vapour loss. The loss of water is likely to cool (latent heat of vaporization) the egg remains, till all the free water has evaporated. Then, the egg debris will probably cook gently - with the proteins denaturing from the rather intense heat/light at 0.3 AU.

It would be fit for human consumption, although the parts of the shell would be a bit crunchy.

Answer 2

It would have burst.

If an egg doesnt pop when you crack it here on earth, then it safe to assume that inside the egg is an equal 14.7 pounds per square inch of pressuure, the same as our atmosphere.

So its reasonable to assume that an egg would expand if it was placed in a vaccume. And while the shape of an egg shell is a strong structure from outside forces, I would expect it to break if the pressures came from within.

Are you expecting to cook the egg at .3AU ? I would hope you had thought far enough ahead to spin it slowly so it can cook evenly...

I'll have mine Sunny Side Up.

Answer 3

It will burst into a million, zillion pieces.....

Answer 4

I rather suspect that the egg will burst in the vacuum but I haven't subjected an egg to a vacuum to see.

Answer 5

If you slowly expose the egg to vacuum, you have a better chance of it staying intact by letting the air slowly escape through the shell.  Even though, the shell is permeable to water vapor too, which will be lost through the intact shell, leaving dried egg solids behind. (This even happens here on Earth- I have very old eggs which have dried out inside the intact shells.)

The electromagnetic radiation (heat and light) would slowly cook (denature) the remaining proteins.  

Other radiation, UV, X-rays, gamma rays, protons, electrons, etc., will have very little effect.  They will break a few atomic bonds and knock a few atoms askew, but it would be hard to find the damaged spots in the large molecules.  Not too different than using radiation to sterilize food here on Earth.

I'd eat it.  I eat denatured proteins all the time and a few captured solar particles won't hurt my diet.

Answer 6

if you place an egg in vacuum, nothing will happen. (if you think about it a little bit)

Answer 7

I'd say it is unlikely that the egg would burst due to the vacuum. After all, air pressure on earth is not very strong, and a vacuum is only one atmosphere of pressure less than the pressure inside the egg. This is the equivalent to us on earth putting a small hole in the egg and blowing air into it until it was 2 atmospheres of pressure. I'm pretty sure the egg would survive.

So the egg would orbit the earth at about the distance of mercury from the sun. It would absorb heat on its sunward side and radiate it back into space on its "night" side, but the overall effect would be for the egg to cook.  

Answer 8

This is an interesting idea.  Star for you.  I believe that the egg will burst due to the vacuum of space and it will freeze-dry instantly.  I would not eat it.