• Question: what is the universe made of ?

    Asked by heners to Anna, James, Joe, Leonie, Olivia on 17 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Joe Spencer

      Joe Spencer answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Heners, this is a big question, we know the universe is made up of atoms, protons neutrons etc etc. but that actually only accounts for about 5% of the stuff in the universe. put it this way, every planet, every star every galaxy in the whole unvierse all added together makes up 5% of the total weight. The rest of the universe, we have no idea, we call this remainder dark matter. But we’ve never seen it or observed it so it’s all abit confusing

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Hi Henners,

      As Joe says, it is all a bit of mystery, nothing I can add to his answer.

    • Photo: Leonie Oostwoud Wijdenes

      Leonie Oostwoud Wijdenes answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      If the guys say that we don’t know, I won’t challenge that!

Comments

  • Photo: Harry

    Harry commented on :

    Black matter could be an answer but I dont think humans know what is made from

  • Photo: James

    James commented on :

    So, looking at what was on TV tonight and I saw that Horizon tonight (BBC2, 9pm) is on The Universe at what it is made of. The blurb is:

    “Scientists don’t know what most of the universe is made of, with atoms accounting for only four per cent of it and the hypothetical dark matter and energy making up the rest. The Large Hadron Collider at Cern has recently been upgraded and the hope is that it will enable researchers to identify the nature of dark matter and reveal its secrets. The stakes are high because if the mystery is not solved, it might mean that physics itself needs a rethink”

    Only just seen it advertised now, but if you want to know more about the Universe this might be worth getting off the BBC iPlayer to watch!