What happens when you wring a sopping wet washcloth out in space?

Well, here’s a hint: It’s much more interesting than what happens here on Earth.


This week, commander Chris Hadfield, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, demonstrated what happens when you get a washcloth soaking in space and then wring it out.

The experiment, called “Wring It Out” was designed by two 10th-graders in Nova Scotia. Kendra Lamke and Meredith Hatfield won a contest sponsored by the Canada Space Agency to come up with an experiment for an astronaut to perform in micro-gravity.


The two students hypothesized that in space, water from a wrung-out washcloth would not drip off but rather would remain on the cloth.

And as you can see in the video above, the students were right.


The water does squeeze out of the cloth, but surface tension causes it to make a kind of water bubble that encricles the cloth and Hadfield’s hands.

Hadfield says the water feels like a gel or Jell-O.


Awesome!