EMPTY SPACE

What is empty space made of?

Vacuum means empty space and it doesn't have atoms. But even empty space is not completely empty. Quarks, the elementary particles that form protons and neutrons, interact with each other through gluons.

Professor Derek Leinweber at the University of Adelaide has created a simulation that shows the energy density of gluon field fluctuations.

(gluon field fluctuations are: Gluons are elementary particles that randomly pop into existence and then disappear. These particles pop into existence with different energy levels each time. This simulation shows the energy of these particles.)

The redder the area is, the higher the energy. The bluer the area is, the lower the energy. Why empty space is not really empty is because this simulation is of the vacuum itself.

What we think of as ‘empty’ space is filled with these gluon field fluctuations.