I am genuinely curious about this. I *kind of* understand that gravity, like light, moves at the speed of light (right?). So then would our solar system, and millions of other star systems, just continue orbiting what USED to be the super massive black hole in the center of our galaxy, if said black hole just suddenly (hypothetically) collapsed/vanished? How does that not violate the laws of physics?
Furthermore – let’s say a star… a hundred light years away went supernova. We’re still receiving it’s light for a hundred years right? It would just look totally normal to us in the sky, for the next hundred years. Well let’s say that supernova was so awesomely powerful as to truly push our planet out of orbit from our sun. What happens first? Does that star’s supernova explosion light up in the sky, or does that impact from this supernova hit us and cause catastrophic damage? What’s faster – the impact or the supernova?
I really want to understand distance/time better as it relates to astrophysics, I just can’t comprehend the insane distance and the deltas between distance + time = what we experience on earth. It’s truly humbling.
In: Physics
1. The center of our galaxy is already collapsed, its a supermassive blackhole. There is no “collapsing” beyond a singularity, and even if there was, it wouldn’t affect the mass that’s already in it. If you’re saying “remove the mass” then that’s a different story, we’d probably just find our solar system keeping its current trajectory forever, falling further and further away from the rest of the milky way.
2. The gamma radiation/xrays from that supernova would probably scour the atmosphere off the planet and eradicate all organic life far before anything would push us out of orbit. The physical pressure wave would be not near speed of light, and would lose energy much more rapidly.
EDIT: Spelling and clarity
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