What is space made out of? What is the blackness in space?
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Here’s an ELI5 with quantum mechanics:
The nothingness of space is understood to be a “quantum field.” All that means is, in the same way water feels like nothing to a fish, and air feels like almost nothing to you, outer space is the ultimate in feeling like nothing while still being something!
So what is it? It’s a field that contains every particle in the universe. It’s constantly in flux, which means particles are constantly appearing and disappearing. These are called “virtual particles” because of how they almost don’t exist (but do).
In addition to the source of all particles, it’s also the source of “dark energy.” We don’t know exactly what it is, but it is pushing the universe apart ever faster. The theory goes that negative mass produces an anti-gravity pushing effect, and the quantum field of the entire universe is the source of this negative mass.
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