Is the space-time curvature static or dynamic?

Question

The gravitation has been explained to act as space time curvature. All different celestial objects create depression on a rubber sheet like universe.These pits have to be dynamic because 1. all the celestial objects are in motion and the pits created by them are also constantly changing. 2.All the galaxies are also moving away from each other so they are also constantly affecting the structure of the space time curvature. Then what is the rate of change of this curvature ? is it instanteous or it travels at the speed of light?. If it is instantneous then it must travel faster than light because the galactic distances are in light years. And if it travels at the speed of light then the gravitation has a finite speed.

Answer 1

You are asking many very interesting questions at once. It comes down to this: what is space-time itself, and because of the nature of that answer, what are the observables... What is the speed of gravity, or does it even have speed, is the Big Bang theory correct, or do we have it all upside down.

According to Big Bang inflation theory, space-time itself expanded significantly faster than the speed of light in the early birth of the universe. So it is obvious that things CAN go faster than light. The explosion was non-uniform, which is why we have matter, and other irregularites that cannot be explained otherwise with current understanding.

Is gravity a "force through a distance" or something a bit more than what Einstein grappled with. Since space-time itself has already moved faster than the speed of light, according to inflation theory, then perhaps gravity too moves at this speed, which is why no one has found any gravitons. What happens if a significant gravitational mass winks out of existence. Clearly the "rubber sheet" would have an elastic deformation that would ripple back to flat. What would be the effect of these gravity waves, and how fast do they propagate....or would the warp in spacetime remain, is it elastic....very interesting questions.

Answer 2

According to relativity, the curvature of space-time is gravity, and this raises an intersting paradox: the amount of curvature is governed by the distribution of matter and energy in the univers, but this distribution is determined by the curvature of space-time. Thinking back to the rubber sheet model, this becomes an obvious truth. A large object, such as a shot put, would cause a large indentation that would cause a marble to roll in. Or, if an area of rubber sheet space contained only small objects, several marbles might roll together to form an area of 'strong gravity', which would in turn attract more objects.

Besides creating the all-important force of gravity, space-time curvature also makes a major dent (no pun intended) in one of our most common beliefs from geometry and family vacations: in curved space-time, a straight line is NOT always the shortest distance between two points

Therefore, it is dynamic and not static.

Answer 3

You are taking Big Bang theory of space from so many space theories,no doubt galaxies are travelling far from each other but they are following the finite time graph,but if you consider different galaxies independently then they are having their own time curvature which may be different from others as they may be formed later or former on & then implies time,but collectively they has to be graphed on the single static graph for a particular time.e.g. consider three things who travelling,one plane,other train & bus,these are moving at their respective speeds w.r.t. earth so they are following a static time curvature,but if these three are compared they have to be vector calculated and follows dynamic time curvature,same way time is dynamic for galaxies and static for inside particular galaxies.But no doubt there may be some times exeception for these e.g. you may be knowing earlier some years ago we were to adjust our timeclock(whole world) 1 second fast.

Answer 4

Its definetly dynamic. The Space itself does not have a speed limit of c. Any mas that moves within space has a speed limit of c but space itself can propagate at any speed ( Well if conservation of energy still holds then the speed of space has some limit). Although it was shown that not only is space moving but it is accelerating outward It is just unknown territory when it comes to how this space behaves. Where does this energy come from...me dont know, some say its from dark energy somehow. Hope that helps..interesting topic

Answer 5

Gravity itself travels at the speed of light.

Changes in gravity - for example because masses move - could travel at the speed of light or below given this. In fact, the Einstein Field equations show that they also travel at the speed of light.

Answer 6

perhaps the link can help