I guess first off I should define what is meant by 'unrestrained.' Here on Earth, whenever we see falling liquids they obviously do not take the form of a perfect sphere (have you ever drawn a round raindrop before?). This is not for a lack of 'trying' on the liquid's part; there are simply other forces at work here on Earth that do not allow liquids to become completely spherical. The two culprits that 'restrain' liquids on Earth are gravity and the atmosphere. Gravity keeps the liquid moving toward the Earth and the gases in the atmosphere provide an uneven drag, with both factors resulting in raindrops that are flattened out and deformed. Click here to watch the video!
Out in space, neither gravity nor an atmosphere are present, which allows liquid to take a perfectly round form. But without either of these constraints, what is left to hold it together? The answer is a phenomenon called surface tension, which is present in all liquids. Molecules in a liquid state are bound together by strong cohesive forces. These forces are even more powerful among molecules at the surface of a liquid because they are not completely surrounded by other molecules. This forms an outer 'tension' which makes it more difficult to move an object through the surface of a liquid than if it were completely submerged.
Warning: the following video is out of this world! (but seriously - it really is freaking awesome.)
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