Question

While gravity is a force that attracts objects with mass, dark energy (or, alternatively, the accelerated expansion of the universe) is not.

However, I have found numerous articles, forums, questions in the stack exchange network... where people seem to say that if you get further from a gravitational source (e.g. a galaxy) there would be a point where the influence of gravity (attractive) and dark energy (repulsive) would be balanced out (sometimes even using the term force).

But again, dark energy is not a force (as said in here and also here). So what is happening here? Is there such a point? If not, then, why are there so many people saying that there is? This is confusing...
A) At certain distances from massive objects, the attractive force of gravity and the repulsive effect of dark energy balance each other, creating a stable point where an object remains stationary.
B) The influence of dark energy and gravity can balance at specific distances, but this doesn't imply the existence of a point where an object remains motionless due to a balance of forces.
C) Gravity and dark energy never balance out at any distance from massive objects.
D) The balance between gravity and dark energy occurs uniformly throughout space, causing celestial objects to remain stationary at specific distances from massive sources.

Answer 1

Dark energy is the force behind the universe's accelerated expansion, counteracting gravitational forces on large scales; there is no singular point where gravity and dark energy balance to keep an object stationary as balance changes with distance and mass distribution.

Step-by-step explanation:

Understanding the expansion of the universe and its relationship with gravity and dark energy can be challenging. Dark energy is a mysterious force that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. It is an energy field or phenomenon that operates over large scales, contributing to the accelerated expansion we observe, particularly as galaxies move farther apart and the effect of gravity weakens. On small scales, gravity is the dominant force and it does influence the motion of galaxies and clusters by pulling them together. However, there is not a singular point where we can definitively say gravity and dark energy balance out perfectly to create a stable point where an object remains motionless since the influence of dark energy and the gravitational force from a specific object change with distance and distribution of mass.

Moreover, the universe's expansion is not perfectly uniform due to the interference of gravity, typically enacted by massive bodies like galaxy clusters influencing nearby objects.