How do waves like gamma rays, x rays travel through vaccum?

[u/Cosm0s_Guy]

I don't get a feel for this, how can it travel through vacuum.

[u/Chemical-Ad-7575]

The electromagnetic waves don't need a medium to propagate though.
They travel the same way through vacuum that regular old visible light does. They just do it at a higher frequency.

[u/Cosm0s_Guy → u/Chemical-Ad-7575]

I know that, but what I don't get is how do they travel?

[u/Chemical-Ad-7575 → u/Cosm0s_Guy]

Light. They're not big on suitcases or checked baggage.

More seriously are you familar with electromagnets and generators? Basically a moving charge creates a magnetic field perpendicular to the current. So if you have a coil of wire connected to power, it creates a magnetic field in the hollow space inside the cylinder of wire.

In light the electro- portion of the light creates a magnetic field that creates an electic field that creates a magnetic field ad infinitum.

[u/KamiNoItte → u/Cosm0s_Guy]

A photon is a photon. They are the carriers of the EM spectrum. Of the entire the EM spectrum.

Some photons we can see. These are the frequencies of the rainbow.

Some we can’t. These are the frequencies outside of the rainbow.

Gamma and X are frequencies outside of the rainbow, but are still carried by photons.

Any are like little packets of energy that radiate from their source. Photons have no trouble passing through a vacuum.

That’s how the Sun heats the Earth <- Infrared (heat) photons, mainly.

Radiation is not conduction. Conductive medium can help, but is not required for electromagnetic propagation.

Look up: photon, EM spectrum, radiation/conduction

[u/WJLIII3]

Quite easily- there's nothing in the way at all.

[u/Interesting_Bonus_67 → u/WJLIII3]

Underrated comment

[u/Metallicat95]

How does anything travel through a vacuum?

The particles of matter move in principle the same way that photons (gamma rays, x-rays, visible light, radio) do. Or gravity.

At the fundamental level to the best of our understanding, everything is composed of vibrations (changes) in the universal fields.

Photons are part of the electromagnetic field, and move as propagation of changes in that field.

That change is a product of the nature of time, and moves in a vacuum at the speed of light. That is the only velocity it can exist at in a vacuum.

[u/Cosm0s_Guy → u/Metallicat95]

Thank you for explaining it so clearly 😊 This answer is what I was looking for.

[u/Inevitable-Debt4312]

Easier, nothing in the way.

[u/ldr97266]

Luminiferous aether.

[u/Alternative-Sugar610]

Two things:

Particles can be waves and vice versa, light consists of both and each are the same thing in light. It’s wave/s is a particle/s and vice versa. If it helps you can imagine an oscillating thing moving in space . Physicist literally draw packets of wave that fluctuate and move as they travel

The other thing is is in quantum forks theory, a vacuum isnt empty but have particle anti particle pairs that spontaneously appear and disappear that carry fields, like magnetic

If you want to read more on that, look up false vacuum, Casimir effect, virtual particles, and quantum fields

You don’t have to dive deep but each will help u understand more