system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When an airlock is breached in outer space, what happens to the air that gets sucked into the vacuum?

Let's say that a spaceship has a compromised airlock. The air is sucked out through the breach, and everyone onboard dies. What happens to the air that gets sucked out of the spaceship and into the vacuum? Does it disperse like dust? Does it stay in one place? Does it drift in one direction forever?
gpt
Suction is a macroscopic effect. Particles in an area are constantly moving in all directions, and this motion averages out under static conditions. When containment in space is lost, there is an unbalancing of particle motion at the barrier between the pressurized area and the unpressurized space. More particles are moving outward into space, and no particles are moving into the ship from space.

On that level, it is easy to see what happens to the air particles - they continue on the trajectory they had when they left the ship. Remember Newton's law: a particle in motion stays in motion until acted on by a force. Once the particle leaves the ship, it continues on its trajectory until affected by another force.