What is the smallest thing in the Universe?

There are always a lot of changes in the smallest thing that can be found in the universe. After a lot of changes, the smallest thing in the universe right now is the quark. Quarks are particles that are even smaller than protons and neutrons that used to be thought of as the smallest particle decades ago.

Quarks come with higher levels of energy. Usually, quarks can be acquired when protons and neutrons are properly broken down. There is still a lot of research and studies that are ongoing if there are more particles that may be smaller than quarks but for this time, they cannot be broken down. There may be some advancements in the future that can change that.

It was a popularly thought some several decades ago that the atom was the smallest thing in the universe, following Dalton’s model where he defined Atom as the smallest, indivisible particle of an element.

However, the atom is not the smallest thing, owing to the fact that several pieces of research have shown to us that the atom is actually divisible. Some experiments have shown that each atom contains a small and tiny, dense center which contains the positively charged proton and the neutrally charged neutron.

This dense center is named "nucleus." In practice, the nucleus has a cloud of tinier negatively charged particles revolving around it called the electrons. The electrons are attached to the nucleus of an atom by electromagnetism. They attract each other by exchanging particles called "photons." It was once a popular thought that the proton and neutrons were distinct particles on their own.

Quark is the smallest thing in the universe. They are the smallest particles that operate at a higher energy level than the protons and neutrons in which they were found. Quarks are also referred to as the smallest thing in the world because it cannot be broken down into smaller components.

Research has shown a quark is about 100 quintillion times smaller than the size of protons. Quarks form composite particles called hadrons. All matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. A proton, for example, has two up quarks and one down quark. The speed of a quark depends on the number of protons and neutrons forming short-ranged correlated pairs in the atom’s nucleus.

While breaking down protons and electrons, it has been concluded that there are quarks, leptons, and antimatter, but when we attempt to reach for smaller items, physics does not apply. These tiny particles are in a quantum state. They sometimes have no negative mass and do not interact with their environment how other objects do. Even though we are informed of the smallest object that exists, we cannot see it. According to experiments, the location of the object and color contrasts were all ideal. A minuscule aquatic organism called a Paramecium, and even a human ovum can be seen without a microscope's help.