Question: what is the universe made of

Jo Sadler answered on 11 Mar 2015:

This is a fascinating question.

The quick answer is: atoms, and space between them. The space in between them bit is very important, otherwise the universe would just be a black hole. Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons, and in turn each of those three compononents are made up smaller parts still.. so the answer gets more complicated depending on how many layers you want to go down!

However, physisists are now discovering new particles that also make up the universe – particles you can’t see and can only just detect, like the Higgs Boson. What these particles physically are nobody really understands – but maybe that will change in the next 20 years or so..!