If Albert Einstein stated that spacetime bends due to gravity, then is what we see in the sky real?

Question

To further refine the question; I am referring to the bend that occurs to the gravity of the Sun when we look at objects beyond our solar system.

Answer 1

The night sky is only real in what we expect to see now, but what you also need to realize, is that what we see now in the sky happened a very long time ago. The bend of light due to the gravity of the Sun is rather slight and so it has little effect on what we see at night with relation to the other stars and galaxies. Actually, if the effects due to gravitational lensing were to be somehow removed, turned off or in some way compensated the night sky would look rather different. Virtually all of the distant galaxies and distant celestial objects would appear in very different locations of the sky. Even the objects within our galaxy would show an appreciable shift in their apparent location. But the gravitational lensing of just our Sun would be pretty negligible by itself.

Answer 2

einsteins formulas are simply mathematical concepts to explain the effect of gravity.

there is no bending of space as there is no space.

this is what i mean. We often hear of bending space time as being similar to applying weight to an area on a trampoline, causing a curvature, then we roll a marble and watch the marble get caught in that curve.. Thats great if you are talking 2 dimension.

Gravities curvature is relative to the motion of the object .

as an example. imagine the earth. it must bend space time and thus satellites orbit it, what about a polar orbit though????? Is space being warped in several directions at once? The fact is an orbit can be obtained in any attitude

Answer 3

As real as anything we see, which might not be real at all, but not for the reasons that you ask here. That is a much more philosophical question.

To answer your line of questioning, yes what you see in the sky is real. This is because we exist in this bent space time just as much as the sky does. Space-time is the fabric of reality in which we exist. As such, when it bends we bend with it. And our frame of reference is embedded within the space time, and so our frame of reference bends with spacetime as well. This results in what we consider to be a "normal" looking reality. The light that comes to your eyes, your eyes, your visual tract, your brain... all of them have the same bent geometry, and as such you do not percieve the bend.


Tiger Striped Dog MD

Answer 4

What you see is the light from these objects that reaches you on earth - they may not be in a straight line position (ie not where you see them to be) due to the bending of light, but they are real.

Answer 5

what we see in the sky is real, but it is real as it was at various different time periods--because it takes time for light to reach of some of the stars we see in the night sky have been dead for millions of years. therefore, we are looking into the past when we look into the sky. during the day, everything we see is in the past, too, but very slightly because of the time it takes from the light from the Sun to reach Earth.

Answer 6

Yes, the only time we see illusions are when light goes through gravitational lensing and then we see more stars then we should. The space-time curvature is only to account for gravity, it doesn't create illusions. For example, we are in the curvature caused by the sun's mass and the Moon is in ours yet they both are real... I think that's what you asked ?

Answer 7

What we see is bending of light. We cannot see gravity.

Answer 8

Yes Why Not

Answer 9

yes but distorted