What Happens When Light Approaches a Black Hole?

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SUMMARY

When light approaches a black hole, it is affected by the curvature of spacetime caused by the black hole's mass, despite light itself having no mass. According to the principles of relativity, light travels at a constant speed in a vacuum, and its path is curved towards the black hole. This phenomenon occurs because gravity influences all objects, including massless particles like photons. Ultimately, nothing can exceed the speed of light, and light does not gain or lose speed as it approaches a black hole.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of general relativity and spacetime curvature
  • Basic knowledge of light and photons
  • Familiarity with the concept of mass in physics
  • Awareness of the speed of light as a universal constant
NEXT STEPS
  • Study the principles of general relativity and its implications on gravity
  • Explore the concept of spacetime and how it affects the motion of light
  • Learn about black hole physics and the behavior of light in extreme gravitational fields
  • Investigate the properties of photons and their role in the electromagnetic spectrum
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Students of physics, astrophysicists, and anyone interested in understanding the behavior of light in relation to black holes and the principles of general relativity.

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what happens to light as it approaches a black whole
Hello I am not a physics student and i don't know anything about science, but i was curious if someone could tell me about what happens when light approaches a black hole i have heard that nothing goes faster than light but i have also heard that black holes can suck in light, combined with the fact that if a person was to enter a black whole whatever was clossest would move towards the center faster than whatever was far away does this not affect light the same way because it can't move faster than it already is? so does the light just turn and head towards the black hole at the same speed with no loss of speed and no increase in speed? and does this mean that light has mass? because how can it affect something with no mass?
 
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Defining speed in relativity is a somewhat tricky thing. Local measurements will always have light going at the same speed and everything else going slower. Remote measurements can give almost anything as a speed - it depends how you choose to define "space" and "time" in spacetime. The key fact is that, however you define speed, nothing ever overtakes a light pulse in vacuum under any circumstances.

Light does not have mass. Relativity models gravity as the curvature of spacetime - everything is affected, with mass or without. Light paths are curved towards the black hole, just like everything else (or at least the path through space is curved - the path through spacetime is straight).
 
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very cool thanks for explaining it to me
 

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