the.com/outer space
The ultimate open-plan office: zero gravity, zero oxygen, infinite commute.
means The vast, near-vacuum expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere where the planets, stars, and galaxies drift.
from 'Space' goes back to Latin 'spatium' meaning an extent, a stretch, a distance — originally just room to move in, with no cosmic ambitions at all. 'Outer' simply marks it off from the air around us, distinguishing the heavens from the breathable layer we call sky. The phrase 'outer space' itself is a fairly modern pairing, gaining real currency in the 20th century alongside rockets and sci-fi pulp, as humans needed a plain term for everything past the atmosphere's edge — the empty, star-flecked rest of everything.
- starts where
- Karman line, 100km up, oddly arbitrary
- sound travels
- nowhere, no air means total silence
- smell reported
- astronauts describe seared steak and hot metal
- mostly empty
- one atom per cubic centimeter, give or take