What is the smallest and largest thing in the universe?
“Thing” is pretty vague so I’ll use my own ideas about small and large.
The smallest measurable thing is the proton with a diameter of 0.84 femtometers or less than one quadrillionth of a meter. Here is a diagram from Space Museum of atomic and sub-atomic sizes. Realize that the electron does not have “size” as we know it; in fact we can’t pin down the electron long enough to measure it. Also note that quarks are theoretical things so they must be regarded as points with no size at all.
As for the biggest thing, I will go with the galactic super cluster Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall at 10 billion light years across. Here is a computer simulation of the supercluster with data obtained from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and other data from ground-based telescopes.
Since this supercluster is 10 billion light years end to end, each small dot could consist of thousands of galaxies and each bright dot could contain millions of galaxies.
For comparison, the Laniakea Supercluster comprising the galactic clusters of ourown Local Group (major galaxies: Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum) and the Virgo Cluster is 500 million light years across.
Ed: Gall Alster has pointed out that a true comparison between smallest and largest would have meters as units. Here is that comparison:
Proton = 0.8x10E-15 meters : Hercules-Corona = 10E+26 meters.
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