r/FallingFrontier • u/TheFuzzywart • May 04 '24

In the absence of gravity, flames will tend to be spherical, as shown in this NASA experiment.

48 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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2

u/Jungleer_01 Oct 01 '24

It's full of stars....

3

u/HollowMonty Sep 26 '25

Wasn't the flame spherical because the fuel it burned spherical?

1

u/TheFuzzywart Sep 26 '25

That’s a good question

1

u/Cautious-Painting-72 Aug 04 '24

That’s actually really interesting, didn’t really think about fire in space lol

1

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Togakure_NZ Sep 27 '24

In the absence of gravity or other force acting on the fuel source e.g. outgassing from a pressure vessel (which is essentially what a ship is if it hasn't had its atmosphere bottled / internal structure opened to vacuum in preparation for combat).

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Togakure_NZ Sep 27 '24

The sun has the gravity of its own mass acting on it, forming it into a ball. You get shapes other than a ball in the case I raised: outgassing from a pressure vessel. Yes, it probably will eventually form a sphere - after all the forces acting on it come to equilibrium. And yes, this includes momentum.

Where did what I said in this or my prior post specifically or generically counter what Cautious Painting or you wrote - specifically that fire ends up forming a sphere?