what are the effects of space on a dead body?
602689
As air pressure drops, the boiling point of liquids drops.  That's why water boils faster (at a lower temperature) as you climb a mountain.\n\nIn a vacuum, the boiling point drops to zero.  Even though the average temperature of space is around 4 Kelvin, all of the liquids and fluids in the dead body will boil away.\n\nSoon you will end up with a freeze-dried husk.  The corpse will only weigh a few pounds, completely mummified.  After that, it will last almost indefinitely.
847832
Your lungs and all tissue exposed would freeze instantly (space is that cold)... any part of you facing the sun would immediately be bombarded with massive amounts of radiation and burn ... and it would all happen instantly and simultaneously.\n\nBut you wouldn't notice 'cause you'd already be dead.
1119922
Carl Sagan's ashes are not in outer space, he is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Ithaca, NY\n\nFor information about sending ashes to space, see the space services web site in the second source below.
949747
I would guess No...\n\nThis is because once your dead, your tissues, muscles, nerves , and organs aren't functioning.\n\nThis could be true if it were a couple seconds after his death... because it would be closely remniscent to a story where someones head got chopped off, andd he could see his own body from the ground. And that is a true stroy since your nerves in your head continue to funmction for a couple of seconds more...\n\n~LG23~
1165028
Your question is theoretical and therefore all answers you receive will be theoretical.  I would think that even if it were for a split second, you would feel some kind of pain.  Of course, if you're floating around in space unprotected, you'd be dead before you got there.
381473
i think the government (and families) would want the body to conduct an investigation as to what was the cause of death. i can't see them getting rid of the body unless it posed a health risk to the remaining crew. even if they did, perhaps they would place him in a space suit possibly with some homing device and retreive the body upon return to earth for a proper investigation and burial to take place.
860526
Rigor mortis is a condition that affects the muscles, not the bones.  It is a chemical condition that occurs after death.  It isn't permanent, it usually disappears after 24 hours.  Then the body goes limp again.
1034469
Just places were dead skin has fallen off of Clausius<sp>>\nBecause it's all  dead skin it kind rips out and irregular leaving voids..
100655
They will lose calcium, and atrophy.  That's why the astronauts must do such vigorous exercises; they are not working their skeletons just walking around, the way we do here under 1 g of gravity pull.
254040
As soon as death occurs, decomposition starts.  They float because of the build up of gasses in the lungs and digestive tract.
971234
It will happen over my dead body.
1070958
When you die, your brain ceases to function. All of the tiny electric currents that jumped from one brain synapse to another while you were alive slow to a stop. Your body no longer functions and your brain activity soon stops completely. \n\nAt that point, the person that we knew as You is gone. \n\nBecause your body cannot be revived, your personality can never be recreated or resurrected along with the memories and other details about your life. \n\nYou have no thoughts, no pain, and no awareness of your existence. \n\nYour family and friends see the empty shell of your body, but You are not really there. You are gone forever, like millions of others who died before you. \n\nYour dreams, your loves and your hopes - gone. All that is left of you is a box of possessions you owned while you were alive and the memories that your living friends and family have of you. Your body is all that is physically left of you. It may have been buried, cremated, or donated for scientific study. If you were rich and philanthropic, a building or a charitable foundation may still bear your name. Otherwise, you may have a gravestone at a cemetery. Or nothing at all. \n\nYou do not miss your loved ones. They think of you and imagine that you are still with them, but you do not stand invisible, watching them from a distance. \n\nYou simply cease to be.
711789
sex will result in your imminent death.\n\nSo will smoking, drugs and alcohol of any kind!\n\nlaws of physics will cease to exist when jumping from anything high or moving! \n\nAnyone with a revenges can learn martial arts in a few short days, from a master that had to take years to learn to be a master!
127795
I'd think at zero pressure you'd get dissolved gases coming out of solution in liquids (blood, urine, etc) and tissues, causing a general expansion of body contents.  The head being a relatively unflexible container, you'd have bulging eyes, brain leakage and hemorrhage.  Blood vessels in the lungs, being thin-walled and directly exposed to the vacuum, would rupture and leak.  This all happens while your body remains at normal body temperature, which wouldn't be very long, since you're dead.  Ultimately you'd freeze and the fluids would slowly sublime out of your body.\nEDIT:\nOogs's listed site and another I found (ref.) provide the following:\nGenerally the problems relate more to existing pockets of gas expanding and dissolved gas coming out of solution, rather then liquids boiling\nYou lose consciousness in ~10 sec due to loss of blood oxygen via the lungs\nBlood doesn't boil, vapor pressure of water at body temp is only 47 mm Hg (0.9 psi) which normal blood pressure can contain\nGas in the digestive tract will expand possibly causing pain and shock\nYou might get the bends\nYou don't explode\nYou die in a couple of minutes\nIn rapid decompression, forcefully holding the breath will overexpand the lungs causing ruptures and capillary tearing
890530
This is actually a good question, because all the shuttle deaths we heard about occurred while going into or down from space.  However, in 1971, three Russian cosmonauts of Soyuz 11 were killed by exposure to vacuum after undocking from space station Salyut 1 when a valve accidently opened.  Their craft subsequently landed normally, but a recovery crew discovered their dead bodies.
1021219
Because to keep your bones healthy, you need to bare weight on them. Since you are essentially weightless, prolonged time in space would cause the bone matrix to start to break down and become "brittle" over time.
482216
the flesh will be decayed \ninitially with aerobic bacteria\nafter oxygen become depleted\nanaerobic bacteria take over\ndegradation is less efficient in lacking of oxygen\nand I think the number of surviving bacteria will also be less than that in sufficient of air\nthe bones should be hard to be degraded in this situation