system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Would a corpse decompose in outer space, or say the surface of the moon, as it does on Earth?

I remembered this scene in Kubrick's adaption of 2001, where HAL kills the astronaut working on the outside of the craft and his body is shown drifting further into space. Would his body decompose over time, while he's in that suit? Would it change if his body were not protected by a space suit?
gpt
No the body would dessicate and mummify, similarly to what happens to corpses at very high altitudes. Decomposition is mediated by bacteria which cannot live in a very low pressure, low temperature environment. Even if the integrity of the suit were maintained, temperature would drop below freezing quickly and all biological activity would stop.