What is the fundamental distinction between conventional rotting and breakdown in space?
Answer
The body would not decompose (rot) but it would certainly degrade chemically.
The core difference lies in the driving mechanism. Conventional rotting, or putrefaction, is a biological process driven by living microbes consuming organic matter in the presence of liquid water and air. In space, these conditions are absent, meaning the body does not decompose or rot. However, this lack of biological decay does not mean zero change; rather, the breakdown shifts entirely to chemical processes dominated by high-energy solar and cosmic radiation over long periods. Therefore, while the mechanism of decay changes from biological consumption to molecular bond disruption, some form of degradation is inevitable.
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