"Solid, dense metals, like gold or tungsten, have very high densities. If you had a cube that was one meter (3 feet and 3.39 inches) on a side - a cubic meter - made of gold, it would weigh approximately 19 metric tonnes: over 42,000 pounds. If that cube were instead made of water, it would weigh only 1 metric tonne, or 2205 pounds. Make that same cube out of air at room temperature and at sea level, and it weighs in at just around 1.2 kilograms, or 2.6 pounds."
"And even though it's a struggle to create a vacuum on Earth, a volume of space as devoid of particles as possible, we've created apparatuses that reduce densities to less than one-trillionth of the air density normally found on Earth. But we often talk about outer space as being the ultimate in emptiness. The densities found in the Universe can be extreme when compared to anything found on our planet, even with all the advances we've made in science and technology."
"How do the densities of interstellar gas clouds relate to densities people experience? Would it be denser than space in low Earth orbit? What would the density, in human terms, be in a protoplanetary disk? There's a whole lot out there in the abyss of deep space, with interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic spaces all boasting vastly different densities from not only what we find on Earth, but from one another as well."
Earth materials vary greatly in density, with metals like gold weighing about 19 metric tonnes per cubic meter, water about 1 metric tonne, and air about 1.2 kilograms per cubic meter. Vacuum technology can reduce particle density to less than one-trillionth of normal air density. Space is often treated as empty, but the Universe contains regions with densities that can be extreme compared with anything on Earth. Interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic spaces have vastly different densities. Questions focus on how interstellar gas cloud density compares with human experience, including whether it is denser than low Earth orbit and what density would be in protoplanetary disks. Vacuum chambers are used to test hardware for low-pressure environments and extreme temperatures.
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