A question about gravity. Where my astrophysicists at?

[Deleted]

The spacetime ripples actually travel and we call them gravitational waves.

I thought these ripples were caused by the interaction of multiple objects or movement and were a kind of minor effect and not really related to OP's problem, but if you want to go that deep, point taken

[Deleted]

The spacetime ripples actually travel and we call them gravitational waves.

but his point before that was valid.

if you got a star that's sending out X gravitational pull at 5 lightyears, there has to have been enough gas near where the star was born to send out X gravitational pull at 5 lightyears. it's like a pit filled with water: the water flew there from the surrounding crevasses.

[Catta]

but his point before that was valid.

if you got a star that's sending out X gravitational pull at 5 lightyears, there has to have been enough gas near where the star was born to send out X gravitational pull at 5 lightyears. it's like a pit filled with water: the water flew there from the surrounding crevasses.

But this is space magic wormhole star appearance...

[Deleted]

It's a funny thought =) I presume then that if the star was to instantly vanish(no explosion of sort, no conversion of mass,just gone) it would still exert its gravity upon the basketball for 5years to come.

That depends on the relationship between the speed of the basketball, and the speed of the observer (you).
But very close to 5 years in the most likely scenarios, yes.

[Huffman]

Nice findings. But I have a question: don't they say that light cannot escape a black hole due to gravity? If gravity isn't faster than light, how can it "catch" the photons at all?

[Deleted]

But this is space magic wormhole star appearance...

And in that case if an object just appeared I think it would emit a gravity wave which may move at the speed of light, kinda like a stone dropped in water.
Or the universe just explodes.

[Catta]

Nice findings. But I have a question: don't they say that light cannot escape a black hole due to gravity? If gravity isn't faster than light, how can it "catch" the photons at all?

as it is i believe its just bending space which is also bending light - its not actually making light that went past the black hole stop and then go back into the black hole...
The blackness is just the fact that nothing is reflected i guess... Event horizon n shit

[Maxwell]

There's alot of statements here about gravitational waves and their nature. Keep in mind this is one of the most plausable theories (seen from a general relatevistic point of view); if you can confirm it, you'll be going to Sweden.

General relativity governs big things: Planets, black holes, stars and basketballs, but there's also the little world to take into consideration. In Quantum Field Theory, and other Quantum theories, the standard model of particles is used. In this model, objects communicate by sending particles to eachother, and can thereby apply forces on eachother (this is very compressed). I.e.

Two charged particles exchanges photons (light), and we get electromagnetic interactions equal to that of an electric field.
Two particles with momentum exchange gravitons, and we get gravitational interaction. (The Higgs couples to mass, gravitons to momentum. Therefore light can undergo gravitational interactions, just like General Relativity states as well)

Point: These gravitons must obey the "speed limit", so in this theory we can at best conclude with the speed of light equals the propagation of gravity.

However, gravitons are not observed. Why? think of it. A tiny magnet can hold a nail up from the entire earth's gravitational pull. Gravity is WEAK, and hard to detect.

So, where do we stand on gravity and gravitational propagation?

Theories, theories.

So if you feel like you're going a straight line while the sun is still up, let us know

[haxartus]

as it is i believe its just bending space which is also bending light - its not actually making light that went past the black hole stop and then go back into the black hole...
The blackness is just the fact that nothing is reflected i guess... Event horizon n shit

Correct. Light travels through space like a highway, and the space gets bent by massive objects, so the light gravitates towards massive objects without actually having invariant mass.

[Deleted]

I don't mean to be pedantic but...

Light doesn't strictly gravitate toward anything, per-se. Light, in a vacuum, will always travel in a straight line. It cannot do anything but. Gravity distorts space. Light travelling through distorted space will appear to bend from the perspective of a distant observer. The light is still travelling in a straight line from its point of view.

[Maxwell]

People (most people) are used to gravitational force being equal mass times a gravitational constant. Some people are sued to gravity being proportional to the product of the interacting objects' mass times the inverse square of the distance between them. Both of which states that no mass = no gravity.

In general relativity (a more general physical framework than newtonian physics), gravity is no longer a force. Under special circumstances, you deduce the behavior above. Gravity in GR is a result of how particles move through space and time. If you want more information about basics principles in GR, read about the "Principle of maximum aging", which states that any object in space follows the path which maximizes the proper time of the object. On earth, when you drop a penny, the penny will go straight for the center of the Earth to do exactly this.

Wop wop..