The Whitehall Ledger - Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Q: Why is there no sound in space?

A: The short answer is that there is no air in space. Sound travels by air molecules bumping into each other in a domino-like fashion. Without air, there is nothing for the sound energy to bump into, so it could not travel. Unlike sound waves, light waves can travel through a vacuum. Light travels as both waves and particles, or photons, and is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Photons travel at the speed of light, or roughly 156,000 miles per second or 300 million meters per second. Because photons travel on their own and do not need other particles...