Real things are phenomena that either have mass, or are subject to the laws of cause and effect, or in some way interact with other things.
This is not sufficient to make them exist. To make a thing exist, it must emerge into the awareness of a conscious being.
So most of the unobservable universe is real but does not currently exist. Most of our outer universe did not exist until Hubble and his telescope, though it was and is real.
At the moment, human beings are the only things we are aware of that bring the things of the universe into existence. This is one of their central roles, along with the development of collective cultural evolution.
