No doubt you've frequently asked yourself whether or not boomerangs work in outer space ...

Okay, probably you've never asked yourself this question, but apparently Japanese astronaut Takao Doi has and on a recent trip to the space station tested whether a thrown boomerang would return to its pitcher.

The result? The return of a boomerang is based on the aerodynamics of the boomerang design and functions properly even in the microgravity of Earth orbit. However, aerodynamic principles do require an atmosphere, so had the boomerang been thrown in the vacuum of space it would have flown in a straight line, eventually burning up as gravity caused it to fall through the Earth's atmosphere.