NUMBER 1
Nothing

Whilethere are many weird things in space, one of the weirdest things is what isn'tthere -- the nothingness of the great black void. But what may be most strangeabout this nothingness is the possibility that it is in fact not reallynothing, but rather a whole lot of something we just can't see.

"The nothingness ofthe vacuum has come under theoretical scrutiny the past century, and what appearsmost plausible, and most fantastic, is that space is filled with a seethingfroth of virtual particles," says James C. White II, executive director ofthe Astronomical Society of the Pacific. "And space itself? At thesmallest scales we can consider, it may comingle with time in a foam ofspace-time."

White describes this"foam of space-time" as ubiquitous events, all defined by theirpositions in space and time. If empty space could be photographed, we'd see asea of virtual particles that spring into existence and disappear.

This ultimate small worldis thought to be composed of "particles that come into existence out ofseemingly nothing, from the very energy of the vacuum itself, that exist fortimes so short that their being does not seem to violate the law that says youcan't make something out of nothing," White says.

Researchers are justbeginning to knock on the door of this weird, small world.

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More About Nothing

Albert Einstein, in presenting his special andgeneral theories of relativity, was the first to suggest a fourth dimension,called space-time.

"Einstein went on to say that matter and space affect oneanother," White says. "Matter, which must exist in space --like a pencil or a snail or a galaxy -- bends space." Gravity is the forcethat does the bending.

White likens the concept to pushing an inflated balloon with yourfinger. The dimple you create is similar to the effect that all matter has onspace.

"If you shine the beam of an incredibly bright flashlight past theedge of the Sun and off into space, your friend on the other side of the Sun willsee that the light's path is bent a bit toward the Sun, which causes a dimplein space-time," he explains. "In a more extreme example, if you shineyour flashlight very near the edge of a black hole's event horizon -- theregion inside of which even light cannot escape -- your friend will see thatlight beam bent by a huge extent."

White says we may never fully understand the nothingness of space, butwith more sophisticated studies, we may eventually get used to the weird ideathat nothing is always something.

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