Eli5: Could you create a vacuum stronger than space, and take a sample of the contents of space?
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It really depends on where in space we are.
In our solar system there are about 10-100 molecules or atoms per cm^(3), so you can think of the atoms being a few millimeters apart. Between galaxies we are talking about 1 particle in 1m^(3). On earth vacuum down to about 300 particles per m^(3) has been achieved.
So yes, we could make a vacuum stronger than some parts of space and in theory we could use the vacuum to suck up particles from space. However, we would only catch very few molecules with this method unless our vaccum chamber is huge and we could as well transport instruments to space which analyse their surroundings directly.
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