It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere...

Question of the day: What would happen if you were ejected into the vacuum of space with no suit?

This question is inspired by my having seen "Star Trek: Nemesis" over the weekend, which actually is a fairly entertaining movie. Not Citizen Kane, but it's fun. Much better than Insurrection, which sucked serious balls. Anyway, if you've seen the trailers, you'll know there's a scene in which Data throws himself into space to get from the Enterprise to the bad guy's ship. This sparked a discussion on the IMDB forums about what would actually happen to Data (who's an android, in case ya didn't know) or to human beings in general if they were to find themselves thrown into space with no protective garb. Theories ranged from instant death to "survival for 16 seconds, but with blindness/other brain damage".

Most people agreed that Data's electrical systems would actually be improved by being in near zero-Kelvin temperatures, but that his structure wouldn't do too well. Unless, of course, 24th century scientists managed to find some really kick-ass metals that aren't adversly affected by super-cold temperatures (and are resistant to puncture by micrometeorites and such). It's possible. Hey, they figured out how to go faster than light without time dilation and can transfer matter to energy and back. So why not? Plus, they've developed weapons and shit that manage to produce sound effects in a vacuum, which is also pretty cool.

Would my brother, the astrophysicist, care to weigh in? Put that Princeton degree to good use. Didn't you take a class in this or something?