• Question: what is space

    Asked by THE MAN to Aisling, Colin, Laurence, Ned, Niamh on 28 Feb 2016.
    • Photo: Ned Dwyer

      Ned Dwyer answered on 28 Feb 2016:

      Space is the area beyond the pull or gravity of planets. If somethinng is placed in space it should stay in that exact position for ever. If you put something in space and give it a shove it should keep going in a straight line forever or until it hits something. Basically there is not gravity or friction to slow it down.

    • Photo: Colin Shirran

      Colin Shirran answered on 28 Feb 2016:

      Space is what we define as everything that is in between all of the physical objects in the universe. The next time you look up at night sky and see the moon, think of the distance between it and the earth. This distance, which has nothing in it apart from maybe the odd satellite that happens to get in the way, is space. This space expands in all directions. When you look at a star in the night sky the same thing holds true. The distance between us and that object is space.

    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 29 Feb 2016:

      Sometimes I come across the expression “what a waste of space” ; curious expression to have the word “space” in it (granted not even referring to the space in your question) but yet space as we know it while empty is not wasted.

      Space is in my view a contradiction – it’s an ever expanding area of astronomical size full of objects and waves of amazing and astounding beauty, some which you can see (comets, asteroids, planets, minor planets, stars) and some which you can sense (gravitational waves, black holes, gases etc). It’s a contradiction because although in its name it seems there’s lots of room, it’s quite full; you just need to look at it in different ways. What you can see in the visible is different to what you see in infrared, different to ultraviolet, different to x-rays, different in gamma-rays.

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