physicsphysics:

jadedfable:

How does fire behave in zero gravity?

“When a fire starts, it heats up the air around it. This causes that particular section of air to become less dense. That low-density section of air heads upwards because gravity is pulling down on everything and colder, denser sections of air muscle it out of the way to get closest to the earth. This is lucky for the fire, because the only reason the air got hot was because the fire was consuming the oxygen. When the low-density air got pushed up and out of the way by the oxygen-rich air, the fire got a new delivery of fresh oxygen to burn.
Not so in zero gravity. The air that’s is heated by the fire does expand, but with no gravity pulling denser air down into its space, it just … stays there. Meanwhile the fire continues consuming oxygen and putting out carbon dioxide until it smothers itself. Space travel is so complicated, with so many problems having such drastic consequences, fire is one of the few ways that astronauts really catch a break. Unless there is some kind of air circulation system blowing over the fire, giving it fresh oxygen, a fire in a space craft would put itself out.”

Full article:

http://uk.io9.com/5779127/how-does-fire-behave-in-zero-gravity

Simply put. That’s just plain cool.