does gravity travel faster than light? Does gravity travel at all, or does it just "get there immediately?

Question

Don't think I'm odd for asking this, but it has been bothering me. I just can't stand reading Stephen Hawking myself. Please tell me what you know, or your independant theory.

Answer 1

This is by no means a silly question, and has only recently been resolved.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2639043.stm

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor


The speed of gravity has been measured for the first time, revealing that it does indeed travel at the speed of light.
It means that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has passed yet another test with flying colours.

The measurement was made by Ed Fomalont of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Sergei Kopeikin of the University of Missouri, in Columbia, both US.
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In fact it may not yet be completely resolved, as I've seen convincing evidence to suggest that if infact it does travel at light speed then the orbits of planets would be wildly different to what they are. Here is one article that disagrees with the finding.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/gravity_speed_030116.html

Speed of Gravity Results 'Incorrect,' Physicist Says
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 01:30 pm ET
16 January 2003



Physicists leveled heavy criticism Thursday on a report from last week that claimed the speed of gravity had been determined by observation and was equal to the speed of light.

One physicist called the interpretation of the finding "nonsense". Others were more diplomatic, suggesting that the experiment, involving observations of the bending of light from a distant galaxy as the light sped by the planet Jupiter, had instead measured other phenomena.

And on it goes...........................................
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Although this article is not the one I'm thinking of, it goes some of the way to explaining the orbital problem.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/grav_speed.html

Does Gravity Travel at the Speed of Light?
To begin with, the speed of gravity has not been measured directly in the laboratory--the gravitational interaction is too weak, and such an experiment is beyond present technological capabilities. The "speed of gravity" must therefore be deduced from astronomical observations, and the answer depends on what model of gravity one uses to describe those observations.

In the simple Newtonian model, gravity propagates instantaneously: the force exerted by a massive object points directly toward that object's present position. For example, even though the Sun is 500 light seconds from the Earth, Newtonian gravity describes a force on Earth directed towards the Sun's position "now," not its position 500 seconds ago. Putting a "light travel delay" (technically called "retardation") into Newtonian gravity would make orbits unstable, leading to predictions that clearly contradict Solar System observations.

And on it goes.........................................................................
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Personally I believe that gravity takes two distinct forms, an open, light speed form; and a closed, tachyonic form that operates in sub-space.

Answer 2

Gravity Faster Than Light

Answer 3

I am going to answer your question with a hypothetical argument. It will be short, just to ensure you read it, I promise.

The speed of light is a constant, you know this I will assume. However, gravity is a variable, entirely dependent on the body that is causing it's attraction. I assume you also know this. Therefore, it is only entirely plausible that if gravity were to exist in a body, stronger than that of a black hole, that it would supersede gravity. Furthermore, gravity has been shown to be able to trap gravity within a black hole, which means there is already evidence that gravity can travel faster than light.

Now, to branch off into theory. What if black holes are not simply using gravity? But time?

Answer 4

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Yes, the force of gravity "travels" like all other forms of energy, and the fastest that it can travel is at the speed of light in vacuum. So if the Sun were to disappear this instant, we would not know about it until about 8 minutes later. Gravity between any two mass is communicated via an elementary particle called the graviton, which must obey the same speed limit as all other particles. By the way, all forces are communicated via an elementary particle. This is a very well established fact. That is why physicists are very confident in saying that gravitons exists even though they have not yet been observed in particle accelerators. The reason gravitons haven't been observed is because current operating particle accelerators can not produce high enough energy collisions to create gravitons. However, the LHC at Cern due to begin operations sometimes in 2007 will be able to verify the existence of gravitons. PS - the electromagnetic force is communicated via the photon, the strong force is communicated via the gluon, and the weak force is communicated via the weak gauge boson. All these particle has been verified to exist, particularly the photon.

Answer 5

A massive body will cause spacetime to warp or curve.[Einstein] The inherent motion of ALL bodies, in other words, nothing is stationary or motionless, cause "ripples" in the spacetime fabric. These ripples propagate at the best possible speed for anything to propagate: c or the speed of light [in a vacuum]. See, the earth is a body in motion. It will remain in motion unless acted upon by another force.[Newton] We all know this. Well, the "force" acting on it is the Sun's curvature of the spacetime in our solar system. This "force" is called gravity. [Einstein again]The earth goes in a straight line along the curved surface of spacetime around our Sun. If the Sun were to dissapear instantaneously, spacetime would ripple itself back to "flatness" since the body causing the curvature is gone and those ripples would travel out at c. So, should the Sun disappear at noon tomorrow your local time, you would not know about it until approx 12:08. Then the earth would stop moving in an elliptical fashion and straighten out on the rippling surface.

Answer 6

Well...
Right now, no one knows. It seems to be instantaneous, but most physicists think it must propagate somehow. The ongoing search for the graviton (the carrier particle of gravity) is unresolved. If gravity is really just a property of space, then it must be "just there", but that has some problems...Stay tuned...Then there's the issue of quantum gravity, which just makes things worse...
Sure was easier when the earth was flat and up was up and down was down, wasn't it?

Answer 7

according to General Relativity theory, which is broadly used today and fits well with experiments, nothing travels faster than light.

so gravitation also only travels at the speed of light, but not faster.

so for example, we are about 8 light minutes away from the sun. So if some giant alien spaceship with proper equipment managed to make the sun disappear at once (i.e. all the mass would be removed), then yes, the Earth would continue on its orbit for 8 minutes until the "news" of the disappearance of the sun reached us. At which time we would see the sun switched off (no more light), and the Earth would continue straight on on its course.

Which I guess would not be much fun...

Hope this helps

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Answer 8

Let's do a simple thought experiment.

The escape velocity of a black hole is greater than the speed of light. This is why we call it a "black hole".

Black Holes posses immense gravitational attraction.

Either gravity is a signal occurring outside the event horizon of a black hole through some unknown quality of mass, or gravity is instantaneous, therefore faster than light.

Answer 9

If I am understanding what you're asking correctly, then I would say yes. I've seen the galaxy clock theory where it was explained that gravity can excelerate the speed of light. Imagine a CD disc, the circumference of the outer edge is lengthier than the circumference in the center, right? So therefore, it takes less time to make one oscillation in the center than at the further end. In the galaxy clock theory, this is explain that as each oscillation in the outter edge increase, the time it takes for the inner circle to make one oscilation is much less, considering that time is constant, therefore at a point, gravitational pull excelerate beyond the speed of light.

Answer 10

Gravity does not travel.