ISS “Bubbles”

[BDL]

It seems that conspiracists (mainly flat earthers) are keen on using footage from ISS EVAs, which apparently show “bubbles” from the space station. Their hypothesis states that these bubbles are seen because NASA fakes the footage underwater and edits it all later, while also being to lazy to edit out the “bubbles”. This obviously isn’t true, but that really has gotten me curious as to what it really is we’re seeing. To me, it looks a ton like dust or debri of some sort. Does anyone know?

[Allan F]

Looks like the ordinary debris of living. ISS is not brand new anymore, and small pieces of paper, bits of clothing, crumbs from eating a cracker must be easy to find, even though the air is filtered several times an hour.

[BDL]

Looks like the ordinary debris of living. ISS is not brand new anymore, and small pieces of paper, bits of clothing, crumbs from eating a cracker must be easy to find, even though the air is filtered several times an hour.

Makes sense. Is it possible that some of these may be water droplets from the inside of the ISS? I’ve also heard that some paint droplets could come off of the ISS.

[Allan F]

I can't imagine water droplets hanging about in the very controlled atmosphere of the ISS. And in space, it would evaporate rather quickly - some of it might freeze from the evaporating, then sublimate away, but I don't know how fast that would happen.

Not enough in this video to go by, anyway.

[Allan F]

[Peter B]

The first problem is that the video provides no context for the clips. When were they filmed? Outside which parts of the ISS? Without knowing the answers to these questions it's going to be hard to answer.

I wondered whether it might be materials like water vented from the ISS, but looking at the Wikipedia article about the ISS's Environmental Controls and Life Support System, it seems the ISS vents only carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

A second thought was that some of the particles might be coming from the astronauts' backpacks - specifically from the sublimators. But I don't know whether they'd produce anything visible.

A third possibility comes from looking at the Wikipedia article about ISS maintenance - there are a few things on the outside of the ISS which have failed in some way and which may therefore produce some particles - damaged solar power and heat radiation panels, and leaking ammonia come to mind.

[Northern Lurker]

In my, definitely amateur, eyes, many of those "bubbles" looked rectangular and they made several trajectory changes. If it were filmed in water tank on Earth, I would expect bubbles to be round and head directly up towards the surface.

Lurky