To paraphrase the man in black: "Space may not be completely empty, it's just mostly empty". Certainly, devoid of aether.

Certainly, devoid of the Luminiferous aether but something aether like as a physical element in the universe is not a completely dead theory (“dark energy”).

https://physicsworld.com/a/quintessence/

 

To me, the remarkable thing about Maxwell's equations is that, not only did they predict the existence of electro-magnetic waves (which no one was aware of at that point), he used them to determine the speed of the EM wave from the value of the electric and magnetic field permittivity's.
Since this value was near the measured speed of light at that time, he then suggested that light was an EM wave (which we now know to be true of course).

Yes, he was a genious. also never forget. they never had any simulation tools. I bet those scientists have really understood the whole phenomena

 

Certainly, devoid of the Luminiferous aether but something aether like as a physical element in the universe is not a completely dead theory (“dark energy”).

https://physicsworld.com/a/quintessence/