The universe is so massive it can be hard to truly understand what exactly makes it up, and how much of this “stuff” is out there. Only 5% of it is made up of matter, which is just the small part that our scientists can understand and actually study. But what makes up this matter?
This is where all those elements you learned about in chemistry class come into play. A huge amount of this matter is made up of just one element, Hydrogen, which makes up a whopping 75% of it! Helium is the second most abundant element in the matter at 23%. Of the 2% of matter left unaccounted for, Oxygen makes up half of it while the other half is made up of eighty elements.
Sixty of these eighty elements only make up >0.0001% of all the matter in the universe! While still hard to imagine, these numbers give a glimpse into just how massive the universe truly is. And as for what makes up the other 95% of the universe? You’ll have to see this infographic from Alans Factory Outlet to find out.