But in a matter of seconds, before the station is destroyed, the hole seals itself and keeps the ISS and its crew intact.

This is a future safety scenario that could be possible thanks to a remarkable new piece of research from scientists at the University of Michigan and NASA, published in the journal ACS Macro Letters. They have developed a material that, when punctured, can "fix" itself and temporarily stop air rushing out.

It is designed for use on a spacecraft, giving astronauts time to fix the hole properly before things escalate.

The self-healing material is essentially a reactive liquid between two layers of a solid polymer. In the research, a bullet from a rifle was shot into the material. This exposed the liquid inside to air in the environment, causing it to solidify.

"Within seconds of coming into contact with the atmosphere, it goes from a liquid to a solid," lead author Scott Zavada from the University of Michigan told IFLScience. In the case of the ISS, it would be the escaping atmosphere of the station that seals the hole.