Question: What is the universe made of?

Miranda Jackson answered on 22 Jun 2015:

In the universe, if we take into account the energy contained in each component, a form of energy known as dark energy accounts for around 68% of the total energy. Dark energy may be causing the whole universe to expand faster and faster as time goes on. Dark matter (stuff we can’t see or detect, but we know it’s there because of its gravitational attraction) accounts for around 27% of the total energy. Normal matter, including stars, gas, dust, planets, and ourselves, accounts for only the small remaining fraction of the total energy in the universe. Therefore, we know that stars and other objects that we can see account for only a small fraction of the total content of the universe. Scientists do not know very much about dark energy and dark matter yet, but there is a lot of research going on to find out more about them.