• Question: what is the universe made of?

    Asked by anon-193417 to iainstaniland on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:


      I love these kind of questions as they are just the ones that I have as well. Not being a physicist I decided to look this one up as I only had a rough idea as to what scientists currently believe.

      roughly 5% is made up of Atoms which is normal matter the building blocks of stars and planets (stuff in the periodic table)

      25% is dark matter, which can’t be seen as it does not produce or absorb light. It has only been detected by measuring its gravity

      70% is dark energy, about which we know very little other than it is effecting how the universe expands. However some scientist think that this Dark Energy does not exist!

      there is a great explanation from NASA here: https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html

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