{"id":175392,"date":"2016-08-11T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=175392"},"modified":"2022-04-25T21:01:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T01:01:18","slug":"short-answers-big-questions-exploring-atoms-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/short-answers-big-questions-exploring-atoms-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Short answers to big questions: Exploring atoms in space"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>So yes, space is pretty damn empty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a new,\u00a0regularly\u00a0occurring feature on NPR, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pas.rochester.edu\/people\/faculty\/frank_adam\/index.html\">astrophysics professor Adam Frank<\/a><\/strong> will answer listener questions about about space, the universe, and everything in between. In this installment, Frank takes on the question, &#8220;if there are points in space with only three atoms per cubic\u00a0meter, what fills in the rest?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And the short answer: nothing.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Right because essentially for a physicist, the absence of matter is nothing. I mean there is still space and time there, but you know &#8211; the absence of matter we consider to be a state of, you know, zero matter, zero energy density.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/09\/489361654\/short-answers-to-big-questions-exploring-atoms-in-space\"><strong>Listen to the story on <em>All Things Considered<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"su-row highlight\">\n<div class=\"su-column su-column-size-1-4\">\n<div class=\"su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-518712 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2018-06-04_Adam_Frank_063-3-2-165.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of Adam Frank\" width=\"165\" height=\"165\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-column su-column-size-3-4\">\n<div class=\"su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\">\n<h4><strong>Astrophysicist Adam Frank<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>A self-described \u201cevangelist of science,\u201d Frank regularly writes<em>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0speaks\u00a0about subjects like intelligent life forms in the universe, high-energy-density physics, space exploration and missions, climate change, and more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/news\/adam-frank\/\">Explore full profile \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank helps NPR listeners answer: If there are points in space with only three atoms per cubic meter, what fills in the rest? \/ <em>All Things Considered<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1372,"featured_media":158292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29212],"tags":[16792,16072],"class_list":["post-175392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-opinion","tag-adam-frank","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Short answers to big questions: Exploring atoms in space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank helps NPR listeners answer: If there are points in space with only three atoms per cubic meter, what fills in the rest?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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