How can space itself expand? Isn’t space the lack of matter, the area in between matter?

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How can nothing expand? Isn’t space made of nothing? You can’t have 5 pounds of space.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

“Isn’t space the lack of matter”

No. The vacuum has energy. Virtual particles pop in and out of being all the time. Because the vacuum has energy, it isn’t “nothing.” Philosophical “nothing” doesn’t exist.

Space can expand because there is a thing we only vaguely know that is anti-gravitational, we call it Dark Energy because it hasn’t been directly observed. It has, however been measured, it makes up more of the universe than all the “stuff” that can be observed. This is why it is forcing the universe to expand against all the gravity that “stuff” provides.

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