What would happen to your hand if you were an astronaut?

Question

floating in space and you took your golve off? What would that do to your hand?

Answer 1

freeze?

you guys ever hear of a thermos?  how exactly does that work?  its a vacuum bottle, you know.

people are bags of water, sealed bags of skin.

in a vacuum, you might get capillary damage on thinner areas of your skin,  eyelids, lips, but your hand should be fine for quite a while.

Answer 2

You do not freeze instantly just because space is "cold".  There is no air and therefore no convection to carry off your heat like would happen in cold air.  Radiative cooling happens very slowly in space.  Also, your skin and blood vessels would keep your blood contained and pressurized so that it does not boil away (which would eventually freeze you if you didn't have skin or tissue) either.   You would sustain some serious damage and pain to your hand over time, assuming that your entire suit does not decompress.  

There have been recorded incidents of people exposed both full body and hand only ("lost a glove") to near vacuums.  You can read about them in the link below, about halfway down the page.  I know it's not an official link, but I have heard these accounts before from other sites, and they are referenced, so you can check their validity.  Nobody exploded or froze.  Other damage to capillaries and such happen much sooner, and would be of much more concern than freezing or exploding.  Keep those gloves on!

Answer 3

It would freeze, rather quickly

Answer 4

Good question.

It will freeze The reason being is Light creates heat when it strikes a surface. In outer space there is nothing so light travel far out in nowhere and doesn't create heat.

Now the question comes is what happens on earth. Earth being very giant object, Light strikes from everywhere and the net effect is it generate heat that is sufficient enough to keep us survive and not freeze like in universe.

Answer 5

same answer i just gave the internal pressure in your hand would cause your hand to explode but you wouldn't care cause the rest of your body would escape through the opening left by the missing glove and ooops.

Answer 6

Your skin is good enough to keep you inside despite a vacuum.  It's very cold in space, except in direct sun shine, where it's really hot.  But there's also radiation.

When i'm observing in the Winter, and want to do some fine adjustment, i'll often take off a glove for a minute or so to make it happen. It's cold, but no permanent damage. Astronauts don't do this.

Answer 7

Instant freeze just before it burst open...

Answer 8

yep freeze

Answer 9

Gets quickly frozen, together with the rest of you. You would die in about 45 seconds and become unconscious in less than 15.

Answer 10

Is there a new "body in vacuum" craze?