What will happen to a ball of water (say, the mass of sputnik, ~100kg) in orbit?
We know that many comets are water. We know the space shuttle used to "atomize" and eject wastewater; the droplets froze and did not fizzle away into molecules. We know that an accidental icicle formed on the shuttle, did not boil off or sublime perceptibly, despite cycling through sun and shadow.
Am I right to assume my hypothetical ball would last just as long in orbit as most artificial satellites do?
I understand that liquid water in vacuum will violently boil, until the loss of vapor cools it to freezing. That's not really the question, and we can imagine this ball of water was pre-frozen at sea level before exposure to space.
I'm going to pose more interesting, related questions as the thread progresses.