• Question: What is the universe made of

    Asked by anon-224970 to Simon, Selen, Paul, Nawapat, Natalie, Katy on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      All the elements of the periodic table!

    • Photo: Nawapat Kaweeyanun

      Nawapat Kaweeyanun answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      Out of all normal matter, the universe is mostly made of hydrogen (75%). The rest is mostly helium (24%) and then all other elements in the periodic table (<1%). This makes sense because hydrogen is the smallest of all elements, and other elements form when hydrogen atoms are fused together.

      However, normal matter only made up about 5% of the universe! The rest is divided into dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%). We call these things dark because we don't know at all what they are, but we know they affect the behaviour of stars and galaxies in our universe!

    • Photo: Katy Bruce

      Katy Bruce answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      Phew, another question where I’m delighted Nawapat has answered first!! I didn’t know about the chemical composition and I know absolutely nothing about dark matter so my ignorant answer would be planets, stars, comets, asteroids, meteorids, solar systems and galaxies but that’s my limit I’m afraid!!

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