Okay, I'm very glad I asked, and I'm sorry if I caused any headaches with this! I'm thinking about scrapping the idea for my story, sadly, but you might've saved me from some potential embarrassment! I thank everyone for their effort here, it's MUCH appreciated!
PS. I envy your brains.
Wow, thank you everyone for all your input! Seems to have gotten people thinking, and I'll try my best with that in return here –trying to comprehend all those terms which I'm only just now learning!
What I gathered; due to the fact that it's a highly viscous and dense metal, its sublimation...
I understand that, but with there being nothing in space for the internal heat of the blob to escape into, do you think it would remain liquid for some time before it does? Or might the pressureless vacuum boil it so violently that its surface tension gives, and turns it into a mist before...
How long would it take for a blob of mercury (the size of a marble or so) to freeze in space? I'd emagine it would have to boil in some way first, and that would send pieces of it flying around, but the surface tension of mercury is much greater than that of water, or urine (as we'd seen...