Space Does Not Work That Way



"Captain, we've been attacked by some sort of force ray! Gah! Gyah! Space air is flooding in! Right. Goggles on!"

- The Simpsons, The Planet from Outer Space

Thanks largely to Speculative Fiction, space is probably one of the most inaccurately portrayed things in modern media, to the extent that complete falsehoods are widely accepted as fact.

This is a very specific kind of Did Not Do the Research, which may have been partially justified in earlier media as the research back then wasn't up to much. Modern portrayals of space, however, still haven't changed much from the rock-filled, noisy place which will make an unprotected human instantly explode into clouds of ice.

Some of this is due to a lack of research or just lack of interest. But most of the modern misrepresentations can be put down to the Rule of Cool (the idea that things with sound are cooler, or at least not as scary, as a famous tagline pointed out, as things without), artistic license, or simply the belief that audiences wouldn't accept it any other way.

Overlaps Artistic License Astronomy. Compare Space Is Magic, which goes above and beyond mere technical inaccuracy. See also: Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness, The Coconut Effect.


 * Arbitrary Maximum Range
 * Asteroid Thicket
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space
 * Conveniently-Close Planet
 * Explosions in Space
 * Explosive Decompression
 * Frictionless Reentry
 * Gravity Sucks
 * In Space Everyone Can See Your Face
 * Latex Space Suit
 * Old School Dogfighting
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
 * Single Biome Planet
 * Space Clouds
 * Space Friction
 * Space Is Cold
 * Space Is Noisy
 * Space Is an Ocean
 * Space Zone
 * Stealth in Space
 * Streaming Stars
 * 2-D Space
 * Universal Universe Time
 * Unrealistic Black Hole
 * Vulcan Has No Moon
 * Weird Moon