We know that the Universe is accelerating, and we’re pretty sure that’s because of dark energy. But where is this dark energy actually taking us? To be fair dark energy isn’t really pushing us in any particular direction, but it is responsible for the expansion of space between all objects in the galaxy that aren’t already together through gravity. Take the Sun, for example, the distance between the Sun and the Earth isn’t influenced by dark energy in any way because the gravitation tie is so strong. Similarly, the Sun doesn’t move to the center of our galaxy as the force of gravity binding it to our galaxy is much stronger than the forces of dark energy.
While dark energy shouldn’t be ignored, it’s really only a concern for galaxies much more distant from us. It’s often described as the gravitational force’s counter-force, but that’s not entirely true. Dark energy does have a repellent influence on its surroundings, but unlike gravity, it seems to spread evenly throughout the Universe. It’s for this reason that gravity can overpower dark energy in densely populated regions.
Dark energy isn’t a directional force, in that there is no left or right movement to it and there’s no real up and down either. So, in terms of trying to figure out what direction the galaxy is being pushed in, there’s no point as there isn’t one. There’s also not much point in trying to ascertain the origin from which the Universe is expanding. Every single point in space is slowly becoming farther away from most other parts of the Universe, but not because the Galaxy is being pushed around by dark energy, but because dark energy is causing the Universe to expand.
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