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What is space made from – what does gravity actually bend? – Phil, 12 years old, Birmingham
What involves mind while you consider space? Imagine a friend bragging a couple of spacious constructing, stadium or museum they recently visited. Do you imagine the constructing as huge and expansive? Is it simply very large, or does it seem empty?
The word spacious doesn't necessarily mean empty. It just indicates that there may be enough room to maneuver across the objects in it. Likewise, space isn't completely empty. It's huge and always expanding, but there are a number of things in it.
As a toddler, I often wondered how far-off the clouds were, what was beyond the Earth, and the way vast space was. This curiosity led me to pursue a Masters and PhD in astronomy. I actually have been teaching these very concepts as a Professor of Physics Teaching on the University of Texas, Arlington.
Where does space begin?
The earth is surrounded by different layers of various gases. At sea level The Earth’s atmosphere incorporates about 100 billion molecules per cubic centimeter. The higher we climb, the thinner the atmosphere becomes.
Mohatatou/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
At an altitude of about 80 to 100 km there will not be enough air for airplanes to flyThis boundary that separates the Earth’s atmosphere from space is called the Kármán linenamed after the Hungarian-American engineer and physicist Theodor von KarmanEverything above the Kármán line is known as space.
The density of space can vary, but on average it is just about 1 atom per cubic centimeter. Think of it this fashion: a cube-sized cube of Earth's atmosphere incorporates billions of air particles. But in space, the same-sized cube incorporates just one or two particles.
The interstellar medium and radiation
Space is an enormous, almost perfect vacuum that is basically freed from of matterThis vacuum incorporates only a few particles in comparison with the Earth's atmosphere. However, it will not be completely empty.
Space is plagued by scattered matter called the interstellar mediumwhich include hydrogen and helium atoms. These are probably the most common elements in space and so they occur in each charged and neutral forms. The interstellar medium incorporates cosmic dust – tiny particles of assorted elements, including carbon and silicon, scattered in space.
High-energy particles the so-called cosmic radiation – mainly protons and the Atomic nuclei – move through space at nearly the speed of sunshine. Cosmic rays come from various stars, including our sun, in addition to from supernovas, the fabric that falls into black holes, colliding galaxies and more.
NASA/WMAP Science Team
Space is stuffed with various forms of radiation, including cosmic microwave background radiationThis is residual heat from the time of the origin of the universe. High-energy cosmic events similar to supernovas and black holes also emit X-rays and gamma rays.
Magnetic fields Fields generated by stars, planets and plenty of other celestial bodies also permeate space. These fields influence the movement of charged particles by attracting or repelling them like magnets.
Dark matter and dark energy
Scientists predict that a previously unseen type of matter Dark matter, which emits neither light nor energy, makes up a significant slice of the mass of the universe. Researchers suspect it exists because they will see its gravitational pull on other visible matter.
Scientists also predict a mysterious type of energy So-called dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. Unlike dark matter, dark energy has nothing to do with matter or gravitational forces, but is a property of space itself.
Think of the universe as a balloon. Dark matter is like the fabric of the balloon and affects its shape, while dark energy is just like the air that’s pumped into it. It doesn't change the fabric of the balloon, but it surely does affect how briskly the balloon expands.
Is there a curvature of space? Can gravity curve space?
Space can even deform. Imagine that space is sort of a large, stretchy trampoline. If you set a heavy ball, similar to a bowling ball, in the midst of the trampoline, it creates a big depression at the underside. This depression is comparable to the curvature of space around something large, similar to a planet or a star. The larger the ball, the stronger the gravity and the deeper the depression.
If you roll a smaller marble down the trampoline while the bowling ball is in the center, the marbles might begin to roll across the depression created by the bowling ball's gravity. The marble will follow the curvature of the depression, identical to planets follow the curvature of space across the sun.
Imagine shining a flashlight over the trampoline. As the sunshine gets near the dent made by the bowling ball, it might deflect slightly along its path. This is comparable to how light deflects when it passes near a really large object in space, similar to a galaxy.
Imagine a black hole with its enormous gravity as a good greater, deeper depression within the trampoline. If you rolled a marble too near this super-deep depression, it might fall in and disappear, identical to things fall right into a black hole in space and might't escape.
So space can deform or bend around large objects with high gravity, identical to a trampoline bends while you put a heavy ball on it.
Space is greater than just emptiness. It incorporates a mix of particles, radiation, magnetic fields, and mysterious types of matter and energy. Think of space as a 3D playground where objects similar to stars, planets, nebulae, and galaxies exist and together form our fascinating and sophisticated universe.
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