In the year 1710, before the Cataclysm that shook Gaianar, Dr. Roberta Menda made a startling discovery that confirmed many scientists theory about the universe. It was believed by many that all the matter that could be accounted for and all the energy as well did not make up the full "weight" of the universe. There was some missing part. It was decided to name this missing element Dark Matter.
Dr. Menda, working on a new visual sensor system that tracked motion vectors of even unseen particles discovered what she believed to be was Dark Matter. It flowed around Gaianar's sun in the Fragment Cloud of the star system though it made up less than 1.3% of the total mass. Quickly using the technology to scan other systems (through advanced telescopes) it was found that this Dark Matter was a fairly common phenomena. A probe brought back some collected Dark Matter to Gaianar for experimentation.
It was quickly found that Dark Matter had three remarkable properties. The first was its incompatibility with organic and even inorganic substances. Its caused oxidation in metals and burns to flesh. It was found that immersion in liquid metals protected non-Dark Matter but it had to be replaced regularly or be oxidized away.
Secondly and quite disturbingly it was found that prolonged contact caused what came to be known as Menda Syndrome. Dr. Menda, after a very prolonged study of the Dark Matter chunks, began to lose her eyesight and have short term memory loss. Eventually she also lost balance and motor control at which point she was hospitalized. A week later she died from what was essentially a poisoning of her system by the Dark Matter. Others became ill before cleansing procedures washed the poisoning away. It was later discovered that Dark Matter poisoning and radiation poisoning had some elements in common.
Finally Dark Matter is completely invisible to the human (or other sentient) eye. There is no discernible presence of Dark Matter in normal light. Only flashes of high intensity light or UV light are able to illuminate, for relatively short periods, an object made of dark matter. It is completely transparent and is able to absorb thermal energy and is thus invisible to Infrared as well.
Perhaps one of the most disturbing discoveries, made by Dr. Caragin Watun (Dr. Menda's successor), was the existence of living creatures composed entirely of Dark Matter. While most of these creatures were very small, it was theorized that there was no practical limit to how large a Dark Matter creature could grow. These creatures cause great damage when they come in contact with organic life.
Dark Matter creatures are nearly impossible to destroy. Most weapon discharge apparently passed through a Dark Matter creature without harm.