What is the universe made of?

Question

Just looking for educated opinions, since nobody knows the answer to this.
I'm asking about the nature of space and time themselves, the nature of matter and energy, and other possibilities such as dark matter and energy.

Maybe the majority of "normal" mass in the universe is in the form of kinetic energy :-) That would be interesting...

Woah... this is kind of like a pendulum... The universe is all potential energy at the moment it stops expanding and all kinetic energy as you approach the moment of complete collapse... cool ^_^

Answer 1

What is the universe made of ?

The Universe is thought to consist of three types of substance: normal matter, ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’.

Normal matter consists of the atoms that make up stars, planets, human beings and every other visible object in the Universe.

As humbling as it sounds, normal matter almost certainly accounts for the smallest proportion of the Universe, somewhere between 1% and 10%.


In the currently popular model of the Universe, 70% is thought to be dark energy, 25% dark matter and 5% normal matter. But ESA’s X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has returned new data about this content. XMM-Newton has found puzzling differences between today’s clusters of galaxies and those in the Universe around seven thousand million years ago.

Some scientists interpret this to mean that the ‘dark energy’ which most astronomers now believe dominates the Universe simply does not exist.


Clusters of galaxies emit lots of X-rays because they contain a large quantity of high-temperature gas. By measuring the quantity of X-rays from a cluster, astronomers can work out both the temperature of the cluster gas and also the mass of the cluster.

XMM-Newton

Theoretically, in a Universe where the density of matter is high, clusters of galaxies would continue to grow and so, on average, should contain more mass now than in the past.

Most astronomers believe that we live in a low-density Universe in which a mysterious substance known as ‘dark energy’ accounts for 70% of its content, and therefore, pervades everything.

In this scenario, clusters of galaxies should stop growing early in the history of the Universe and look virtually indistinguishable from those of today.


Astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton have shown that clusters of galaxies in the distant Universe are not like those of today. They seem to give out more X-rays than expected.

These clusters of galaxies have changed their appearance with time, and calculations also show that in the past there were fewer galaxy clusters.

This indicates that the Universe must be a high-density environment, contradicting current ideas. This conclusion is highly controversial, because to account for these results you have to have a lot of matter in the Universe and that leaves little room for dark energy.


XMM-Newton has given astronomers a new insight into the Universe and a new mystery to puzzle over. These results are being confirmed by other X-ray observations and, if these return the same answer, we might have to rethink our understanding of the Universe.

Answer 2

Approximately 74% of the universe's energy (including the mc^2 of matter) is dark energy, whose nature is completely unknown except for its effect on universal expansion. 22% is dark matter, presumably consisting of a kind of particle never that's hasn't been observed directly but only from it's effect on galactic motion. A leading candidate for dark matter is the axion. It's really hard to detect, if it exists at all, but real progress is being made by trying to decay them into photons in a magnetic field. 4% is ordinary matter composed of the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up the elements.

Answer 3

Matter is made of atoms, atoms are made of protons neutrons and electrons, those particles are made of quarks and other particles i'm not sure of the name of.

Einstine theroized that matter and energy are relative (e=mc²) but the rest is a mistery. Dark Matter is just a name for everything else. It used to be called Ether but they still know nothing about it.

Antimatter is a possibility aswell.

Answer 4

There is no 'ether' the universe isnt made up of things in that sense. It has things in it. And some believers of quantum physics would suggest that each 'thing' is simply a manifestation of a probability wave due to an observer.

Answer 5

The universe is a spheroid region seven hundred and five metres in diameter.

Answer 6

96% of the universe is dark matter.4% is made up of all the stuff we can see.(planets,star,galaxies,etc.).

Answer 7

The universe is made of everything there ever was, is now, or ever will be.

Answer 8

Our scientific knowledge is not enough to answer this question.