I am something of a dilettante in physics, so please forgive me if the answer to this question is painfully obvious. The question is simple, can something that theoretically has no mass exert a force. I have been tossing around this and other similar questions in my head for a while now and have not really found any concrete answers to my inquiry. I am thinking about how light seems to be able to push objects but yet has no mass, however I expanded the question to be more encompassing in hopes of further learning.
Answer
Yes, photons can. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_pressure (and photons are certainly massless).
PS In fact, any massless particle has momentum(*) and if it is scattered on a body, it changes its own and the body's momentum, which is what a force does.
(*) $p = \hbar k = E/c$ where $E$ is its energy and $c$ is speed of light
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