• Question: what is the universe made of?

    Asked by area520kudu on 23 Oct 2024.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 23 Oct 2024:

      Some visible stuff (matter) and a lot of invisible stuff (dark matter)

    • Photo: Tina-Jaine Haigh

      Tina-Jaine Haigh answered on 27 Nov 2024:

      Kirsty mentioned the dark matter, which is stuff we really don’t know much about, and frustratingly that’s most of the universe. For the rest – the normal matter – the majority of that is hydrogen. Hydrogen is the smallest possible atom – just 1 proton and 1 electron. Stars are mostly made of hydrogen, and the hydrogen gradually fusions (sticks together) to form bigger atoms, like helium (2 protons, 2 neutrons, 2 electrons), Lithium (3 of each), and so on. But this process is still ongoing, so overall there is much less of the bigger atoms.

Comments

  • Photo: Sheridan

    Sheridan commented on :

    Of course “dark matter” has not been detected it has been made up by astronomers to explain unknowns. It could turn out not to exist if we can amend the laws of physics like Einstein did.