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See a glow in the night sky? It may have been astronaut urine

By Andrew Nusca | Sep 16, 2009 |

If you noticed an unusual glow in the sky last Wednesday, it wasn’t a shooting star — it was astronauts’ urine.

The glow was the result of the space shuttle Discovery releasing an unusually large amount of water and urine into outer space.

Unusually large as in 150 lbs., according to Space.com.

Why did Discovery drop its waste payload? According to a NASA spokeswoman in the article, it’s the result of recent restrictions on waste disposal while the space shuttle is docked with the International Space Station.

Which leaves one simple question: what happens when you release pee in space?

Liquids released into space apparently freeze as tiny ice shards first. Once the sun’s rays strike, the ice sublimates into vapor and disperses into space.

 
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    Dr_Zinj

    09/17/09 | Report as spam

    Rather stupid of them

    They really should have a ion driver and utilize waste as propellant mass. They could conceiveably piss their way into a higher orbit.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancée and his cat, Spats.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.
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