Space is cold. In fact, at a temperature of -270C (-454F), it is just a couple of degrees from Absolute Zero, the coldest it is possible to be. So if you ever find yourself floating from the space station without a working space suit, you might expect your body to freeze stiff.

This wouldn't happen immediately, however: in cold air or water, you have "convection" currents drawing the heat from your body, but the vacuum of space lacks this heat transfer. Instead, you would face another gruesome fate first: your blood, your bile, your eyeballs –will boil furiously, since the low pressure of the vacuum massively reduces the boiling point of water. It is only then that you would freeze.

Watch the clip, taken from Dara O Briain's Science Club, to see the effect recreated in the lab.

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