The universe that we call home is pretty amazing. It’s filled with incredible celestial objects and mind-blowing physics phenomenon. We tiny humans on our tiny rock floating through this vast emptiness make up a fraction of a fraction of a miniscule amount of all that’s out there. But what exactly is all that’s out there. What makes up our universe? Let’s take a look.
1. The periodic table can give you a basic idea.
The universe contains elements. Which elements, you might ask? Well, none other than the ones on the standard periodic table of elements. Granted, only a few of those elements make up the vast majority of what you can find out there (namely hydrogen and helium). And if you want to get down to the nitty gritty, elements aren’t exactly the basis of the universe. Elements are made up of atoms, and those atoms contain subatomic particles.
2. Subatomic particles reign supreme.
For some time, scientists thought atoms represented the smallest matter in the universe. That was before we discovered subatomic particles, which make up those atoms. The subatomic particles you’re probably most familiar with are protons, neutrons, and electrons. However, we can break those down even further into quarks. There are so many other particles and categories of particles, but we’ll keep it simple and stick to these.
3. The fabric of space-time underlies it all.
While all the matter in the universe is made up of elements, and those elements are made up of subatomic particles, there’s one other thing permeating the universe, and that is the universe itself. The concept of space-time can be a little tricky to comprehend. In essence, it’s the four dimensions containing our universe as we know it (three standard dimensions and the fourth is time). While space-time is considered a mathematical model, it was developed to explain real phenomena. It might not be a physical material, but it’s an integral part of the universe (as we understand it currently, at least).
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