This question is based on Carroll's book Spacetime and Geometry, specifically from page 33 to page 36.
In the upper mentioned section we define the Stress-Energy Tensor as:
The flux of the four momentum $p^\mu$ across a surface of constant $x^\nu$
Here lies the first problem: canonically the flux of a vector across a surface is a scalar, not a matrix or a tensor. So I don't get this definition at all.
But nevertheless I understand that the Stress-Energy Tensor represent a generalization of the concept of mass and energy, so we can move forward for now. We then get the form of the Stress-Energy Tensor for a perfect fluid: $$T^{\mu\nu}=(\rho+p)U^\mu U^\nu+p\eta^{\mu\nu}$$ (where $\rho$ is the energy density, $p$ si the pressure and $U$ is the four-velocity; keep in mind that we are working in flat spacetime). This is fine for me, however then we come to the following expression: $$\partial _\mu T^{\mu\nu}=0$$ It is stated that the $\nu=0$ component corresponds to the conservation of energy and the other three components correspond to the conservation of momentum; but no direct proof, or justification, of this statement is given. Using the definition of $T^{\mu\nu}$ previously cited: how can we show that the upper mentioned statement is true, or at least plausible?