why the sun can tranmit heat and energy to the earch if the space is vaccum?

Question

vaccum can store the energy since there is no medium and the energy cannot be tranferred. why the sun can tranmit heat and energy to the earch if the space is vaccum?

i am kinda stupid (i don't know much about radiation, is it wave like ?)
if it is wave like, it need a medium too. just like the sea wave, if there is no water , there is no wave.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. But I need more explaination.
if the electromagnetic radiation don't need any medium (no fraction). How come the temperature on each planets in solar system have a huge different (there must be some energy loss in between?)

according to the answer below
"
The further you are from the source what changes really is not the amount of energy but the area over which this energy is spread. So if for e.g someone tries to wet you using a garden hose you will get all wet when you are next to him but when you are further away you will only get a few drops from the water spray. "
>>
The water don't spray too far because of the gravity, or the medium? that effect the way of water go.

Answer 1

Please don't think you're stupid! The brightest people of days gone by thought that there MUST be a medium through which light traveled. They called it the ether, and it took a lot of very brilliant people to prove the theory wrong. Many people never even think about how light travels!

I've been trying for many, many years to teach myself this stuff, and I couldn't have explained it as well as some of the answers above. It's just not as easy to understand as things we can easily weigh or measure and see with our eyes. (And then there's the math. )

Answer 2

Electromagnetic waves do not need a medium to propagate in space. The reason is that it is just energy, it does not have any mass and it is not made out of any kind of particles unlike mechanical waves like sea waves or sound. It is just an oscillating electric field, that creates an oscillating magnetic field over and over again forever thus called the electromagnetic wave.

Heat is transferred in space via this mechanism and not conduction which is the most usual mechanism we use on earth to transfer heat. You will probably be asking yourself what does heat have to do with electric and magnets... well this electromagnetic energy when it falls onto a thing that is made out of molecules it excites them and they start changing states of energy thus producing what we feel and call heat.

As for why some planets are colder than others:

The further you are from the source what changes really is not the amount of energy but the area over which this energy is spread. So if for e.g someone tries to wet you using a garden hose you will get all wet when you are next to him but when you are further away you will only get a few drops from the water spray. The result of this is the loss of power as the wave travels a distance. So the further it has to go the less energy it would carry at that point in space and therefore the result would be a much more colder planet...

Another example is solar panels on spacecraft. If placed around the earth one can get away with relative small panels. If you want to go to mars then you need larger and more efficient panels. Finally if you go to Saturn then solar panels won't do. There is not enough energy (solar flux) from he sun to power your craft.

Answer 3

It's true that there is a vaccuum in space, and is not much of a medium. However, the heat and light we receive is transferred by electromagnetic radiation. Ultraviolet rays, light, and radio waves are all forms of radiation the Sun transmits to Earth.

When these high energy waves hit Earth's atmosphere, soil, and all other matter these waves excite the particles and transfer their energy to them... Thus, heat is created not by the Sun's ultra hot surface but by the interaction between the radiation it emits (it IS a nuclear furnace) and Earth's matter. This is how the O-zone protects us, by absorbing harmful radiation just enough such that the rest of the rays dissipated into lower altitude particles have less energy and are therefore less harmful...

Answer 4

There are 3 procedures warmth travels between warm bodies and cooler ones; Conduction Convection Radiation the first 2 pick a medium between the bodies and are in reality the move of skill by potential of a continuous chain of atoms down an skill gradient to a lot less energetic ones. The very last approach, radiation, is composed of the emission of photons from an atom with an skill state above the bottom element. Photons can shuttle and not using a medium between radiator and receiver.

Answer 5

The sun emits electromagnetic radiation which does not require a medium to travel. Waves like sound waves are called matter waves, and they require a medium through which to travel. This is why you cannot hear anything in space. Electromagnetic waves, like light, radio waves, microwaves, and x rays do not require this medium through which to travel.

Answer 6

Space is not a vacuum. The vacuum is relative based on our experience on earth of the amount of matter per cubic meter. The sun is a giant nuclear furnace pushing out billions of tons of matter per second in every direction. Since there is little resistance between the sun and us, most of that energy arrives here and gives us light and heat.

All matter and energy are particles (photons, gamma rays, etc. are all manifested as particles). Those particles move quickly through the "relative vacuum" of interstellar space and slam into the Earth.

Answer 7

Light can travel through a vacuum. Otherwise it would be quite dark here, don't you think? You already have your proof. The reason why light can travel through a vacuum is a pretty lengthy explanation. In short, light is electromagnetic radiation produced by our sun's nuclear fusion, fusing hydrogen to helium and emitting a lot of energy (light!) in the process. Our sun is one big gonzo H-bomb, so hot we can feel it from 93 million miles away. That's a lot of miles. Heat is light. Light is a lot of things. Gamma rays, x-rays, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, radio/TV waves, and in the visible wavelengths, you got 'yer colors blue, red, green, and so on. Light scurries along at 186,000 miles per second. It never stops. It never slows down. It never speeds up. If it hits an atom, it is absorbed, and then spit out again to go on it's merry way at, you guessed it, 186,000 miles per second. It don't need no stinkin' medium to "transfer" itself.

Answer 8

Because the photons which make up light, heat and other types of radiation don't need a medium to travel through in order to produce any effects on an object.....in this case the Earth.

Answer 9

The permittivity of free space is not zero. Light and other wavelengths of EM radiation can move through vacuum. Some of this radiation becomes molecular motion (heat) after it is absorbed by some bit of matter on the Earth.

Answer 10

The sun sends energy in the form of radiation. This radiation is caught in our atmousphere and is then reflected back out into space. Not all of it escapes. The energy that stays is released as heat.