B Would Earth fly off into space if the Sun disappeared?

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If the Sun were to hypothetically disappear, Earth would not immediately fly off into space but would experience a delay of about eight minutes before feeling the effects of the Sun's gravitational pull diminishing. This delay is due to the propagation of changes in spacetime, which occurs at the speed of light, making an instant disappearance inconsistent with general relativity (GR). The discussion emphasizes that GR forbids the scenario of the Sun disappearing, as it violates conservation laws. Instead, if the Sun were to explode, the gravitational effects would still take time to reach Earth, leading to a gradual change in its trajectory. Overall, the consensus is that any changes to the Sun's mass would affect Earth after a delay of approximately eight minutes.
  • #31
It all good Oro i am now aware the question is impossible in GR and will work on it. It was a high school level question so perhaps tone it down sunshine.
 
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  • #32
Julius Ceasar said:
It all good Oro i am now aware the question is impossible in GR and will work on it. It was a high school level question so perhaps tone it down sunshine.
Regardless of level, do you want to learn something or just be told a story? This is the difference between science and popular science. Whereas learning science will tell you how the theories actually work and generally requires you to make more effort outside your comfort zone, popular science will tell you a story about science that comes with a million caveats you have no chance to catch as a layman. This is all good if you understand that and it is what you want. However, there are countless examples of people coming to these forums with the impression that they know science based on popularised accounts.
 
  • #33
I can appreciate that.
 
  • #34
An object like the sun cannot go out of existence. But if it does (If the sun converted all its mass into energy in a second and all the energy is ejected from its poles perpendicular to Earth's orbit plane), it'll take 8:34 min to recognize, optical as well as gravitational since nothing is faster than the speed of light.

I do not see why there have been so many posts, and even less why this thread became personal.

Thread closed.
 
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