Bleeding In Space Is Even Scarier Than We Thought

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Grunge By Cynthia Griffith June 2, 2022

In space, there are no guarantees. Our limited knowledge of the universe means that every expedition is truly a trip into the unknown. What is that swirling around an astronaut's helmet? Is it a dying star collapsing into itself, a gaping black hole taking prisoners, a possible alien lifeform, or a pocket of utter nothingness? Nobody can say for sure. According to Mental Floss, even very basic tasks in space are marked with a certain degree of uncertainty. Tooth brushing is tricky, and nail clipping can be an eye-piercing experience, literally.

Indeed, if our recent calculations are correct, there's really only one thing an aspiring space cadet can really set their sights on — one thing they're almost guaranteed to see. According to ScienceDirect, it isn't a nebula or an icy ring circling Saturn. No, it's blood. Large volumes of gushing, crimson, cosmic hemoglobin. We're not talking about the tame kind of earthly blood you saw on the latest episode of "Grey's Anatomy" here. This is space blood, and it's every bit as chilling as it sounds.

Blood flows differently and sometimes even backward in space

To say you're more susceptible to injury at zero gravity is putting things lightly (via Wired). As soon as an astronaut touches down in outer space, physical changes occur in the body that affect the cardiovascular system in a myriad of ways. On earth, blood vessels dilate in order to increase their supply, and they constrict in order to prevent us from losing too much blood (per Health Pages). In space, the body finds both of these tasks difficult, which leads to a decreased supply of circulating blood throughout the body, not to mention a decline in red cell mass, a compromised immune system, and a decrease in the amount of time it takes the body to heal itself from gaping wounds.

This physical reaction to zero gravity puts a great deal of pressure on free-floating astronauts, giving them an increased risk of sustaining an injury. Stranger still, in 2019, New Scientist reported the discovery that microgravity can actually make an astronaut's blood run backward through the veins, a conundrum some scientists believe is caused by vital organs rearranging in the chest — yikes! In the 2019 example, two astronauts with backward-flowing blood experienced life-threatening blood clots, but both survived.

So even when human blood is contained in the vast reaches of outer space, it's still pretty scary. Now imagine the impact of an actual wound.

Space blood rockets out of gaping wounds, splattering like a sci-fi slasher

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