Is Your Exhaust Really Hydrogen and Oxygen in Liquid State?

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The main rockets, not the solid rocket boosters, are just hydrogen and oxygen in liquid state. And they're brought together with these valves. There's nothing for your exhaust to interact with. So it'll just stay there as exhaust. It releases something like 286 kilojoules per mole of hydrogen. That's why it's very clean and green. We're not contributing to climate change.

How is chemistry different in space? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Matt Kirshen explore cosmic chemistry, the periodic table, and more with Kate Biberdorf aka Kate the Chemist. Is the periodic table complete?

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Photo Credit: S535b, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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