Скачать или смотреть Is space truly empty?

Despite its appearance, space is not a perfect vacuum. It contains interstellar gas, dust particles, cosmic rays, neutrinos, electromagnetic radiation, and possibly dark matter — all contributing to a faint but significant presence of mass and energy.

Even in regions considered “empty,” such as intergalactic space, there can be a few atoms per cubic meter. In contrast, Earth’s atmosphere has around 10²⁵ molecules per cubic meter, highlighting how sparse space is — but not empty.

Moreover, space is also filled with cosmic microwave background radiation, the relic energy of the Big Bang, and is constantly traversed by subatomic particles like neutrinos, which rarely interact with matter.

This subtle “fullness” of space plays a vital role in astrophysical phenomena like star formation, radiation transfer, and the structure of galaxies.