The most holistic explanation for the measurements made by astronomers, using the maths of General Relativity, and relying on the concept of curved space-time.

General Relativity is based on the same symmetries as Special Relativity, however it makes Space-Time reflexive to external things, such as matter, and energy (which are then in turn affected by curved space-time).

A main issue is the fact that General Relativity is a system based on Classical Mechanics, yet Quantum Mechanics puts us in a situation where we have to ask, from where does a particle, that can be in two places at once, attain its gravity? The answer to this question is often called a Theory of Everything or a Theory of Quantum Gravity."

Another giant step forward via Einstein was that the space constituted by the three non-temporal dimensions is curved, via general relativity, which tells us that gravity is the result of that curvature, which is the effect of mass on that space.

Currently physics is a pluralist (dualist) field, if you think about the The Standard Model and General Relativity.

Gravity was the first force to be discovered, but ironically, may be the one we understand least, and to date, is best explained by General Relativity.

Quantum Mechanics and Relativity theories, have made obvious how peculiar the nature of time, leaving nothing but paradoxes left in some cases.

Einstein's equations present us a (block) universe where everything that is going to occur is effectively decided from the beginning (the initial conditions), leading him to purport that time is an illusion. Most physicists accept Einsteins predetermined time, as it falls directly out of General Relativity.

A main issue is the fact that General Relativity is a system based on Classical Mechanics, yet Quantum Mechanics puts us in a situation where we have to ask, from where does a particle, that can be in two places at once, attain its gravity? The answer to this question is often called a Theory of Everything.

One of the critical consequences of this is that the value of a theory is placed in the aspect of it that is unconfirmed: General Relativity was unproved for a while after it was presented, and if the contradictions it presented were what it was judged on, it might have died.

Before we can do this, we must address the conflict between these two descriptions. General Relativity is unambiguous, and precise, and is highly tested. There is little, if any, debate over how to interpret it. With Quantum theory, there is no consensus about how it is to be interpreted. Quantum theory has also been rigorously tested, as well as giving birth to modern industry, but it itself, is arguably not even a theory, but rather a recipe.