You might be surprised to know that space is not empty. We often hear in school that space is a vacuum. Actually, nature abhors a vacuum. And it is even more complicated and exciting than that. In fact, we live in the extended atmosphere of a star, our Sun. The atmosphere, which is full of energy and matter, interacts with everything in the solar system filling space. It interacts with other planets, comets, asteroids, astronauts and the very spacecraft we use to study it. It creates a dynamic and often dangerous environment, a non-empty space, that NASA and its partners want to understand and explore. Let's explore this together and take a peek at the new final frontier. Sponsor: CC This program is worth 1 contact hour of continuing education.