Don Pettit Bubbles VIDEO: NASA Astronaut Injects Air Inside Water Sphere

The zero-gravity environment inside the International Space Station gives astronauts ample opportunity to have a little fun--as seen in this new space bubbles video in which NASA astronaut Don Pettit builds some bubbles.

Pettit isn't content with ordinary bubbles familiar to Earth-based bubble blowers. Using a hypodermic syringe, he creates bubbles inside a sphere of water--bubbles inside bubbles.

The sphere of water Pettit toys with in the video is actually an antibubble—a droplet of liquid surrounded by a thin film of air.

"So that’s like a thick spherical shell of water," he says. Then he drops a bubble inside. "Oh wow, look at that."

The demonstration was recorded this month as part of Pettit's physics-in-space video series Science off the Sphere.

In the video, Pettit points out that the bubble floats to the center of the sphere and then asks: When the water sphere rotates, why do the bubbles center themselves?

Know the answer? Tell us in the comments.

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Comments

[physicsrocks]

11:26 PM on 04/27/2012

I hope that NASA and Mr. Petitt will continue to share thier near earth orbit experimental results with us ground pounding, gravity prone earthlings!

[George Watt]

01:15 AM on 04/27/2012

Its sad that some do not realize that this is a science education experiment. These kind of "neet" things apeal to kids and intice them to think about them.
Beyond all the products created by the space program, it created dreams in the minds of generations driving them to create even better things.

[Brendalee Rodriguez]

09:51 AM on 04/26/2012

When you go to work "if you do work", do you give your employer 100%, do you maximize every second of your work day? Do you bring the numbers up do you contribute to the bottom line? Are you posting on facebook while at work? My point, you ask? Don't assume that they are not working. These are astronauts, (unlike some people posting here), when they use their brain and think and "play" with water in space, believe me, they are recording their findings and may not be useful in that moment but somewhere down the line it may be. Right now, these people are in SPACE, that is amazing! Whoever has the NASA channel should tune in once in a while. Let your kids watch it....so they can understand and see for themselves that their is no limit to what you can achieve if you work hard and study. My next comment is cheesy and here it goes. Children should be encourage to reach for the moon and stars.

[joseph paduano]

08:51 AM on 04/26/2012

Thank you Mr. Rogers.

[Liberty for America]

08:50 AM on 04/26/2012

The lack of ability to attempt to answer the question is a clear result of our current education system. Instead of intrigue and learning we have politically correct answers. In the days when NASA was thriving and developing products like Teflon, etc. people were working and making money and looking to find a way to reach the next level. Students desired to achieve in science and math because of the space program. Achievement will solve the economic problems we have today, not social programs. Instead of encouraging people to go on programs where they are continuously dependent on the government, we need to challenge people to reach whatever the next level is for them. If that attitude doesn't change we will never know the potential of this generation.

As far as cost goes, NASA was the only federal agency that actually made money. Guess that's why they had to kill the program. It was making the other agencies look bad.

[dakotaeverhart]

06:48 AM on 04/26/2012

Really? Homelessness abounds as people loose their homes to foreclosure and this is how NASA spends funding? What did that test cost us?

[pod4270]

08:02 AM on 04/26/2012

Government spending at its finest!

[soski]

08:35 AM on 04/26/2012

I agree, we should stop funding all experiments so when you are dying of a rare disease, you will die with no hope for a cure.

[crowsnest184]

10:18 AM on 04/26/2012

you mean like cancer or aids?

[dakotaeverhart]

03:01 PM on 04/26/2012

What you just did is called "taking a thought to a ridiculous extreme". The behavior of an air pocket inside water at zero gravity is hardly an experiment... Any 5th grader can correctly predict the outcome of that one. I support funding for research..... I also think those in charge should be good stewarts of that funding........ Get a clue, and stop hating, perhaps you were the 1% out of 99 that was amazed by the video and had no clue of the effects of zero gravity........

[rubbersole79]

03:12 AM on 04/26/2012

"...what does it all mean?..."
It means the exact same thing as a double rainbow.

[RadicalAmerica]

03:02 AM on 04/26/2012

Great. 50 bazillion dollars later....

[donnieb]

02:45 AM on 04/26/2012

Bina laden done it

[donnieb]

02:44 AM on 04/26/2012

Gravity is a force that acts all the time everywhere in all directions and has same effect at distance of billion miles or in atoms. This exclude god out of creation. Gravity does cancel our imagination of time. Time doesnt exist, its a distance measure that exist. This movie exclude all math calculations done in the history. All over again

[artorius317]

09:45 AM on 04/26/2012

Wrong, gravity does NOT have the same effect everywhere and in all directions.

[John Armijo]

09:50 AM on 04/26/2012

Huh?

[allenfields]

10:00 AM on 04/26/2012

You need to pay attention in classes other than socialism.

[skeptical777]

12:24 AM on 04/26/2012

surface tension of water forms the water sphere, equilization of pressure inside the water bubble surrounds the air bubble.

[seekerseekingseeker]

12:49 AM on 04/26/2012

Tha's the right answer ! By your name I'm guessing you have an analytical mind !

[Rodin 2]

12:22 AM on 04/26/2012

Ignorance is bliss. Don't bring the happy pepople down with facts.

[physicsrocks]

11:18 PM on 04/27/2012

Don't worry, be happy! I hope no one misinterpreted my comment as fact!

[physicsrocks]

11:50 PM on 04/25/2012

The important part of the question was a "spinning" bubble of water. The bubbles rotation creates radial forces which increase pressure and density towards the outer surface. If the bubble spun fast enough, it would fly apart as the radial forces exceeded the surface tension holding the H2O molecules togetherr as a bubble. The air bubble is forced away from the higher pressures and towards the center, where the pressures are at a minimum.

[Razpooten]

12:46 AM on 04/26/2012

One major consideration is that they are not in actual "zero gravity." They are still within the earth's gravitational influence but only at about 10% of it. The space station and all its contents, including astronauts are falling towards the earth at the same velocity. This is what gives the illusion of weightlessness. The space station and all he objects in it are following Newton's first law of motion which is linear motion.

[shaterra]

02:29 AM on 04/26/2012

there's no such thing as linear motion. everything describes some sort of parabola or spiral as it moves because everything is in motion around some sort of axis. the sun rotates at amazing speed around the center of the milky way. the earth rotates at around 65 thousand miles per hour around the sun and about 1 thousand miles per hour around it's own axis at the equator. What we see as motion in a straight line is actually an optical illusion based on our perspective.

[ebbjib75]

08:27 AM on 04/26/2012

Oh look dear: it's a physics class right here in in this comments center. And you had to go and pay $500.00 for that class at the Community College! I want a divorce-you hear me ~ A Divorce!

[hemipwr54]

11:40 PM on 04/25/2012

Oh look a billion dollar bubble with air, just like NASA's budget it about to burst and diminish to nothing.
Goodbye NASA time to go the expense is to excessive.

[allenfields]

10:01 AM on 04/26/2012

Your comment is so stupid it does not deserve a comment, you're only displaying you ignorance.

[hemipwr54]

12:51 PM on 04/27/2012

Yawn, such witty retort.

[John 16-3]

11:00 PM on 04/25/2012

The bubbles go to the center for the same reason they rise to the surface of water on earth... the pressure is lower in the center of the spinning blob of water.