Remember thatflame burstrecordedby an cosmonaut aboard the ISS ? Well , it was n’t just for the fireworks . In fact , that great globe of blast led to the discovery of a antecedently nameless character of nerveless - burn flame that is n’t even visible to the naked eye .
We all marveled at theincredible - calculate Vine release by astronaut Reid Wisemana few workweek ago , but anew release excuse a routine moreabout precisely what was happening in the video . The squad was led by an locomotive engineer from University of California , San Diego describe Forman Williams , who remotely initiated a series of tests that took position inside a bookshelf - sized testing chamber where cosmonaut can canvas different types of fire in unlike atmospheric conditions .
There , Williams ’ team ignite a droplet of fuel bid heptane — yes , igniting fuel aboard the space place — to see how the flame would behave . And the musket ball of fire we saw in the Vine was actually just the beginning of the trial run . After it was extinguished , another flaming was pass on burning . One that was invisible to the naked eye , or any camera aboard the ISS . Using other detector , the research team see out that this invisible , cool - bite flame was still going strong . “ We observed something that we did n’t think could live , ” Williams says in the statement .
These flames do n’t normally have the chance to form here on Earth , but in microgravity , they were able to wave . Here ’s howUC San Diego explains the phenomena in a release :
The dispute between world and the space station is buoyancy . When droplets of fuel burn mark on ground , buoyancy limits the amount of prison term gases can hang around in the high temperature zone around the droplets . So there is n’t enough meter for the droplets ’ chemistry to plunk for the cool flame . But in micro - sombreness , there is no buoyancy , so there is enough time for the gases to stay around the droplet and for that chemistry to grow .
So the trick will be recreated the same poise - cauterise combustion here in Earth ’s air . The field of study , published in the journal Microgravity Science and Technology , is just the beginning . Now , the ISS will undertake a whole new serial of psychometric test to find out how this new type of fire could profit locomotive engine pattern back here on Earth . The new study will begin this winter under the impossibly badass - sounding name of COOL FLAME INVESTIGATION . [ UC San Diego , Sploid , io9 ]
Here ’s NASA astronaut and commander Dan Burbank in 2011 working with the Combustion Integrated Rack quickness , where the experimentation take place . range viaNASA .
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