How can empty space contain anything? Space is not empty. It contains a vacuum. The vacuum has properties that can be measured.
The properties of space are physical constants. The familiar ones are light speed c, gravity G, Planck’s constant h, electrostatic constant ε, and magnetic constant μ.
From the science of optics and the physics of quantum mechanics space is described as a field of small oscillators sometimes called the Zero Point. Oscillators store energy in a dynamic way by converting it from one form to another and back again. One of the great unanswered questions in science is about how much energy is stored in the vacuum.
Scientists are deeply divided with extreme opinions. Either the vacuum energy Is very small or very great. If the physical laws emerge from the vacuum, then it is reasonable to suspect that the energy is very great. If the energy in space was small then we should be able to over power it and change the laws of nature. Max Planck and Paul Dirac thought the vacuum energy is very large. It can be estimated from Planck units, but with assumptions that look like numerology, and answers that look like infinity.
The new theory of Vacuum Partition gives a way to replace the assumptions with a partition function, to get a more reliable estimate. The answer is an energy field in space that is very large, but not infinite.
