I’m probably being completely dense, but an absence of light makes dark...isn’t that all that dark matter is??? Nothing tangible, just an absence of light? No ‘matter’ to it?
No.
“Dark” is a term coined by scientist to basically say “We have no clue”.
Unknown = Dark
The issue is that they seem to believe it MUST exist because they claim they can see its effects.
And it helps make their calculations work.
“Dark” means “we can’t find it.” It might really be dark, or it might be a problem with relativity, or something outside of both relativity and the Standard Model. At least now some of the leading theories have shown to be lacking.