YOU TRY IT! Space Face
Put on your space face and find out what you will look like when you leave Earth.
WHAT YOU NEED
- A handheld mirror
- A phone camera
- Floor space near a wall
- A friend to help
WHAT TO DO
- Using the phone camera, take two close-up selfies showing just your face. Smile in one of them and keep a straight face in the other.
- Have your friend help you stand on your head with your back and feet up against the wall for support.
- While you are on your head, ask your friend to hold the mirror in front of your face so you can see yourself. Notice how different you look!
- Have your friend turn the phone camera upside down and take two close-ups of your face, one smiling and one straight.
- Compare how your face looks when you are standing upright and when you are on your head.
- You now have your space face on!
When you turn upside down, the fluids in your body shift toward your head, making your face puffy and pink. Everyone—from Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, to people living on the International Space Station today—looks different in orbit than they do on the ground. The force of gravity no longer keeps fluids down into the lower body, so the face becomes rounder. Astronauts are sometimes surprised at how different they look when they catch their reflection in a mirror while in space.