Speed of Light Near Black Holes: Explained

In summary: Near a black hole, the speed of light in a vacuum is reduced to c_0. This means that the photon has less energy and is therefore attracted to the black hole more. This causes the photon's energy to increase, reaching the maximum amount of energy it has at the black hole.
  • #1
Prashan Shan
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black holes pulls light right,
then when a black hole pulls photon will the speed that photon increase?
 
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  • #2
No, the speed of light does not change near a black hole. Why do you think the photon's speed should increase ?
 
  • #3
As the rabbit said, the speed of light in a vacuum is c.

Far away from a black hole, the speed of light in a vacuum is c.

Near a black hole the speed of light in a vacuum is c.

The speed of light in a vacuum is c.
 
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Likes Prashan Shan
  • #4
wabbit said:
No, the speed of light does not change near a black hole. Why do you think the photon's speed should increase ?

lol likely because gravity "pulls" things, pretty easy to intuit the OP is envisioning that "pull" on a photon.

Prashan Shan said:
black holes pulls light right,
then when a black hole pulls photon will the speed that photon increase?

No it will not increase the speed of the photon. The photon is already traveling at an invariant speed, but that doesn't mean nothing happens. That "pull" "stretches" or "compresses" the wavelength of the photon, changing frequencies. Which one depends on your perspective / which way the light is traveling through the "distorted" spacetime.
 
  • #5
nitsuj said:
lol likely because gravity "pulls" things, pretty easy to intuit the OP is envisioning that "pull" on a photon.
The thing is, it's not really wrong to think that there's a "pull", the issue is, what does a pull do to a photon since it cannot change its speed ? As you mentionned it acts on its frequency, but the intuition as to why it does so is not obvious.

Prashan Shan, perhaps you know than a photon's energy is ## E=h\nu ## where ## \nu ## is its frequency. You can think of that as kinetic energy since the photon does not have a rest mass - now what does gravitational attraction do to the kinetic energy of a particle as it gets closer to the attracting mass?
 
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FAQ: Speed of Light Near Black Holes: Explained

What is the speed of light near a black hole?

The speed of light near a black hole is the same as the speed of light in a vacuum, which is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second.

Does the speed of light change near a black hole?

No, the speed of light remains constant near a black hole. However, the gravitational pull of the black hole can affect the path of light, making it appear to slow down or bend.

How does a black hole affect the speed of light?

The immense gravitational pull of a black hole can warp the fabric of space-time, causing light to follow a curved path near the black hole. This can make it appear as though the speed of light is changing, but it is actually traveling at a constant speed.

Can anything travel faster than the speed of light near a black hole?

No, according to the theory of relativity, the speed of light is the maximum speed at which anything can travel. This applies to objects near a black hole as well.

How does the speed of light near a black hole affect time?

The intense gravitational pull of a black hole can cause time to slow down near the event horizon (the point of no return for objects entering a black hole). This is known as gravitational time dilation and is a result of the warping of space-time near the black hole.

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