• Question: what is the universe made of

    Asked by kianxf123 to Frank, Ian, Isabel, Jared, Zena on 12 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Zena Hadjivasiliou

      Zena Hadjivasiliou answered on 12 Mar 2015:


      It depends on what scale you are looking at! If we were to say what makes up the universe that we can see, then I’d say things like the stars, planets and meteorites. But the massive things, and everything we see on the earth is made out of atoms. These are very tiny and scientists once thought that they were the smaller unit the universe is made of. But then we found out that atoms are made up from even smaller things, electrons and protons (which are tiny, charged particles and can cause electricity), and neutrinos. Then we found out that even protons and electrons are made of smaller things called the quarks! Don’t you think it’s amazing that most things we can see are made of billions and billions of particles that we could never see or touch directly?! I think it’s fascinating!

      Cosmologists also believe that a lot of the universe is made of “dark energy” and “dark matter”. These are called “dark” because we can’t really see them with telescopes and infer their presence by looking at their effects.

    • Photo: Isabel Pires

      Isabel Pires answered on 13 Mar 2015:


      The universe is actually mostly made up of empty space! Only less than 5% of it is actual matter (made up from atoms and other particles such as quarks and neutrinos, as mentioned by Zena), such as the stars and planets and ourselves.

      The Universe also contains a very interesting and difficult concept to explain – dark matter and dark energy.

Comments