{"id":5075,"date":"2023-05-23T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T15:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fas37.org\/wp\/?p=5075"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:18:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:18:29","slug":"the-microscopic-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fas37.org\/wp\/the-microscopic-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Microscopic Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 31, Number 5.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is part 4 of a 5-part series on the Universe (The Visible Universe<\/a>, The Dark Universe<\/a>, The Expanding Universe<\/a>, The Microscopic Universe<\/a>, and The Multiverse<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universe is huge and filled with light. We can see out 46 billion light-years in any direction. It is full of stuff, including stars, planets, galaxies, and galactic structures. It is also dark; full of black holes, built with dark matter, and driven by dark energy. However, everything we see, and maybe some things we can\u2019t see, are built from microscopic fundamental particles, and influenced by four fundamental forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Things are made of quarks and electrons. Quarks combined in triplets to form protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are bound together in atomic nuclei. Atomic nuclei combine with electrons to form atoms. Different combinations of protons yield up to 118 different types of atoms (elements). Atoms bond together to form molecules. Molecules, in turn, bond together to form bigger molecules. Bigger molecules then bond together to form even bigger molecules. Minerals, DNA, amino acids, bases, and many other building blocks of our macro universe are built from these molecules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Standard Model<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s go back to the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fundamental structure of everything is described by the Standard Model of Particle Physics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are Fermions, which are the building blocks, and Bosons, which are the forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n