the object's speed will not change.
In fact, after the astronaut throws the object, no additional forces will act on it (since the object is in free space). According to Newton's second law:
[tex]\sum F=ma[/tex]
where the first term is the resultant of the forces acting on the body, m is the mass of the object and a its acceleration, we see that if no forces act on the object, then the acceleration is zero. Therefore, the acceleration of the object is zero, and its velocity remains constant.
