Streaming Soot
Streaming Soot

Fuels burning in space behave very differently than they do on Earth because of the absence of gravity. The Flame Extinguishing Experiment (FLEX) examines the combustion of liquid fuel droplets on the International Space Station.


This colorized gray-scale image is a composite of all the individual video frames of the backlit fuel droplet. The bright yellow structure in the middle is the path of the droplet, which becomes smaller as it burns. Initial soot structures (in green) tend to form near the liquid fuel. These come together into larger and larger particles which ultimately spiral out of the flame zone in long, twisting streamers. A plane of symmetry has been added for effect.

Image Credit: NASA

Page Last Updated: August 2nd, 2013
Page Editor: NASA Administrator