Cells, especially plant cells can withstand much more than 1 Bar of pressure difference. A plant will not start to boil in a vacuum, contrary to other comments. Every land organism has gone though a great deal of evolution to make sure it doesn’t loose to much (or any) water though evaporation on its surface.
However plants require on pressure and evaporation to pull water from the roots to the leaves. It will loose its water through its stromata in the leaves a loot more than normal. If the roots are in water it will be ok, just dry out the ground realy quickly.
Most likely the leaves will die fairly quickly, followed by the roots. The cambium of a woody plant will probably not even notice the vacuum for a few months. Just like in winter it will basically hibernate beneath the bark and form new sprouts once it is in atmosphere again.
You will probably have to cut away some dead wood to expose the living cambium and initiate regrowth of roots and new sprouts but a tree will be able to regrow after being in a vacuum for a (relatively) long ass time. Think of a tree stump getting new sprouts around the outer edge a year after it was cut down.
No idea about radiation and heat though. If it is floating in direkt sunlight its probably fucked after a few days.
Well, yes, if it loses a ton of water it will get cold and freeze. OP suggested water loss would be fairly manageable, though. I guess the question is just how much it would lose, exactly.
I guess it’s also worth noting we’re assuming deep space here. OP didn’t specify, if you’re right next to a star you have the opposite problem.
I was going to say anything except maybe an aridity-adapted plant would dry out very quickly through those stomata, because it would be boiling off. I kind of forgot about the non-leaf plant parts, though.
I think a grown tree would should out pretty long. The pressure in the tracheids is so low already that water should be boiling inside a tree in normal atmospheric conditions. The capillary forces of the narrow tube and the surface tension of water hold the water liquid. I could imagine the water in the top 10% of the tracheids evaporating in less then a minute but the rest will take a long time to drive out. I might be wrong though I couldn’t find any papers on plants in vacuum. Lots about zero gravity and space radiation though…
Cells, especially plant cells can withstand much more than 1 Bar of pressure difference. A plant will not start to boil in a vacuum, contrary to other comments. Every land organism has gone though a great deal of evolution to make sure it doesn’t loose to much (or any) water though evaporation on its surface.
However plants require on pressure and evaporation to pull water from the roots to the leaves. It will loose its water through its stromata in the leaves a loot more than normal. If the roots are in water it will be ok, just dry out the ground realy quickly.
Most likely the leaves will die fairly quickly, followed by the roots. The cambium of a woody plant will probably not even notice the vacuum for a few months. Just like in winter it will basically hibernate beneath the bark and form new sprouts once it is in atmosphere again.
You will probably have to cut away some dead wood to expose the living cambium and initiate regrowth of roots and new sprouts but a tree will be able to regrow after being in a vacuum for a (relatively) long ass time. Think of a tree stump getting new sprouts around the outer edge a year after it was cut down.
No idea about radiation and heat though. If it is floating in direkt sunlight its probably fucked after a few days.
You left out the temperature,though. Regular space temperature would kill any cells very very fast and the temperature change would do the rest.
A vacuum is a great insulator, though. It may well cool slowly enough to go dormant and eventually vitrify, if it’s something cold-adapted.
I feel like if its losing a lot of water through evaporation then it’s also losing heat that way as well
Well, yes, if it loses a ton of water it will get cold and freeze. OP suggested water loss would be fairly manageable, though. I guess the question is just how much it would lose, exactly.
I guess it’s also worth noting we’re assuming deep space here. OP didn’t specify, if you’re right next to a star you have the opposite problem.
I was going to say anything except maybe an aridity-adapted plant would dry out very quickly through those stomata, because it would be boiling off. I kind of forgot about the non-leaf plant parts, though.
I think a grown tree would should out pretty long. The pressure in the tracheids is so low already that water should be boiling inside a tree in normal atmospheric conditions. The capillary forces of the narrow tube and the surface tension of water hold the water liquid. I could imagine the water in the top 10% of the tracheids evaporating in less then a minute but the rest will take a long time to drive out. I might be wrong though I couldn’t find any papers on plants in vacuum. Lots about zero gravity and space radiation though…
Interesting, that’s a lot longer then I would have assumed. Now I am curious how long a seed would survive in sunlight before losing visibility.