astronomy and physics is so humbling here's some facts to make you feel real small and insubstantial:
of all the mass in the universe, 85% of it is in the form of Dark Matter, which is a phenomenon where we observe that there is a substance that interacts only gravitationally (and thus can not be seen) that makes up most of the mass of galaxies. Only 15% of the universe's mass is in baryonic matter, like, chemical elements and stuff. The kind of matter we're made of.
99.9% of the baryonic normal matter is plasma, a kind of ionized gas which is rare on Earth. It is found in stars and nebulae. 0.1% of the normal matter is in the familiar states of gas, liquid, or solid.
Most normal matter in the universe is hydrogen or helium, made during the big bang. The rest, which astronomers call 'metals' regardless of their chemical properties, is about 1% as much as the hydrogen and helium, and is the result of stars producing heavier elements in their cores and then casting them out into space at the end of their lives. Aside from the hydrogen in the water in your body, you are metals (in the astronomical sense.) The Earth is almost entirely metals (in the astronomical sense.) We're the dusty leftovers of dead stars.
Even just looking at the hydrogen plasma alone, the majority of it is invisible and almost undetectable because it's just incredibly sparse intergalactic nebulae.
The overall density of normal matter in the universe is something like a drop of water in a billion cubic miles. At any given random point in space, other galaxies would not even be visible without powerful telescopes.
Atoms are mostly empty space. Like. 99.99999% empty space. The distance between the nuclei of atoms and their electrons is vastly greater than the size of the nuclei.
Most of the mass of protons and neutrons is in the form of massless particles called gluons which glue together the quarks that make up protons and neutrons. Only a small fraction of the mass of atomic nuclei are due to quarks. The rest is just massless gluon particles travelling at the speed of light as photons do, just kinda imbuing the proton and neutron with mass by virtue of good ol' E=MC^2.
The time that has passed since the beginning of the universe is about 13,800,000,000 years. The time until the last star dies is about 100,000,000,000,000 years. The time until the effective end of the universe due to the heat death is about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. During almost all of that time there will be no stars, no galaxies, and no planets. There would be only solitary black holes. We are existing in the first instant of the universe, the first flash of light before the long long dark.
We are but specks in a vast and uncaring universe. Well, almost uncaring. A tiny bit of it cares a whole awful lot. And maybe that's enough.
