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. Orbiting what used to be there, because its gravity is still propagating toward us at the speed of light.
2. Even after it collapses, it will still have the same total mass, hence the same total gravity.
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