What is in the darkness?

By Richard Cannon in All Sorts

What is there throughout in the universe that surrounds us that we can’t see but that still influences us?

What is in the darkness? – Richard Cannon
I am fascinated, yet somewhat overwhelmed, by astronomy and
astrophysics. The sheer size of the universe is mind-boggling. Our solar
system is part of the Milky Way galaxy that contains between 100 and 400
billion stars, or suns, nearly all of which will have planets orbiting them.
What’s more, our galaxy is one of about two trillion other galaxies in the
observable universe – the portion of space we can detect, the part from
which light has had enough time to reach Earth since the ‘Big Bang’. The
total universe, beyond what we can observe, may be vastly larger than the
observable universe or even infinite, meaning the actual number of galaxies
could be limitless.
Disclaimer: although interested in astronomy, I am by no means an expert,
so there may be some inaccuracies in this article. A couple of terms I came
across recently are ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’. Although new to me,
the presence of dark matter has been proposed for over 140 years. The
existence of dark matter was postulated by Lord Kelvin in 1884 to explain
the force that was slowing down the expansion of the universe. The reason
it is called ‘dark matter’ is that it is substance that can’t be seen. Dark
matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact
with electromagnetic radiation, including light, which is why it can’t be
seen. Amazingly, of all the matter in the universe, ordinary matter that we
can see such as stars, planets, moons, comets, asteroids and dust, makes
up only about 5% of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27% –
the rest, 68% is thought to be ‘dark energy’. Dark energy is the name that
astronomers give to the mysterious "something" that is causing the
universe to expand at an accelerated rate.
It is said that dark matter is the invisible glue that holds the universe
together, and dark energy is the force moving the universe apart. As a
scientist I want to be able to understand and explain things around us, and
things that happen. We are pretty good at doing that for things we can see
or experience, it is a lot more difficult for things that are invisible. That is
why, after 140 years scientists still have not identified ‘dark matter’, and
‘dark energy’ is still a mystery. What do you think the glue that holds the
universe together might be, and what is the energy that keeps the universe
moving? What is there throughout in the universe that surrounds us that
we can’t see but that still influences us?