Can you sneeze in space

On Earth, health experts recommend you sneeze into your elbow to keep viruses to yourself. On a spacewalk, that's not an option. Here's what you want to do :. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter llmysteries.

If I didn't do that, it's possible the sneeze could be found floating in another module. I generally don't sneeze into open air on Earth or here in space. Snot floats in space, of course, so you can imagine it would look kind of like these water droplets that Kelly turned into ping pong balls:. While Kelly is absolutely right that you should cover your mouth when you sneeze, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually recommends using the crook of your elbow instead of your hand if you don't have a tissue handy.

You should also wash your hands after you sneeze to avoid spreading the cold, flu, or other diseases. There have been reports that sneezes travel mph and land 30 feet from their source. But when the Mythbusters guys tested their sneezes , they measured 17 feet and 13 feet, clocking in at 35 mph and 39 mph. In the International Space Station, which is only about feet long, a snot rocket traveling that far would still be a doozy. Follow Tech Insider on Facebook and Twitter.

Or even worse, during a space walk? Let's take a look at what really happens when an astronaut sneezes in a space suit. As Tariq Malik of Space tells us, spacewalk sneezing isn't necessarily an enjoyable experience for the astronaut.

While there's no mention that sneezing would wreck your spacesuit or anything, there's absolutely no way to cover your mouth, let alone clean up.

The best case scenario, we imagine, is that your lovely views of the Earth would be obscured by a huge glob of mucus, while the nightmare situation would totally obscure your vision with droplets and goop. Neither would be a very pleasant experience, but fortunately, there's a way to avoid them. In , veteran astronaut Dave Wolf revealed that astronauts are actually trained for space-sneezing situations, and the trick to avoid obscuring your vision is simple.