Let's face it, if anyone's going to make water surface tension research look cool as hell, it's a bunch of astronauts on board the International Space Station. But while submerging a camera inside a weird-looking water bubble suspended by the forces of microgravity looks super-fun, the research behind it as actually really important.
As Elizabeth Howell notes over at Universe Today, it's crucial that astronauts gain a better understanding of how water behaves in microgravity, in order to prevent life-threatening mishaps in space. One such accident occurred just last year, when astronaut Luca Parmitano reported during a spacewalk that there was water in his helmet. Rather than clinging to his helmet as expected, the water ended up clinging to his face, and even made its way into his eyes. Practically blinded, Parmitano had to quickly make his way back into the airlock.
So watch the hilarity above as NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman join European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst in releasing a big, gloopy ball of water into microgravity, for science.
Source: Universe Today