Space Does Not Work That Way - Television Tropes & Idioms

Dear God! Space air is leaking in! Goggles on, men!
— The Simpsons (Bart and Lisa watching an old Sci Fi movie)

That's the end of that one. Atmospheric conditions in outer space often interfere with transmitting.
— General Roberts, Plan Nine From Outer Space (causing uncontrollable sobbing in astrophysicists)

Thanks largely to Speculative Fiction, space is probably one of the most inaccurately portrayed things in modern media, to the extent that complete falsehoods are widely accepted as fact.

This is a very specific kind of Did Not Do The Research, which may have been partially justified in earlier media as the research back then wasn't up to much. Modern portrayals of space, however, still haven't changed much from the rock-filled, noisy place which will make an unprotected human instantly explode into clouds of ice.

Some of this is due to a lack of research or just lack of interest. But most of the modern misrepresentations can be put down to the Rule Of Cool (things with sound are cooler than things without sound – although not as scary, as a famous tagline pointed out), artistic license, or simply the belief that audiences wouldn't accept it any other way.

Overlaps You Fail Astronomy Forever. Compare Space Is Magic, which goes above and beyond mere technical inaccuracy.

Specific kinds of Space Does Not Work That Way include: