Gravity. . . Faster than Light?
©2016 C. Henry Martens
I've heard people say, “Nothing is faster than light!" all my life. You too, I bet. And the statement is said with such force, as though the pronouncement is written in stone. Fact.
So is light speed the ultimate velocity in our universe?
I submit that it is not.
Light is made up of photons. These are individual particles traveling en masse and emanating from a specific source.
The fact that they are particles speeding away from a source would beg the question... What is fast enough to catch particles of light? Not only that, once caught, what latches on and captures photons? The color/lack of color, black, captures light. But the light it absorbs has to be directed at it. Even the smallest distance between black and the path of the photon’s travels means that the light continues on, uncaptured.
How about Gravity? Well, black holes capture light. Not because black holes are black, but because light captured isn’t fast enough to escape. No light coming out... no color. None, not any, nyet, nothing, zero, not one, zip, nil, no part, not a bit, zilch. No photons escaping. So something must be tracking down the photons and capturing them, which means that whatever it is, is fast enough to catch light. Wouldn’t that mean it is faster? Seems to me that the awful pull of the black hole is that force, and the pull is supplied by gravity.
Escape velocity from Earth is 25,020 mph. So if light is traveling at 186,000 miles per second, what is the escape velocity required to exit a black hole? The strongest source of gravity in the known universe is a black hole. Just how fast is the speed of gravity?
I've never heard of that... The Speed of Gravity.
We speak of how heavy things are all the time. Isn’t that what gravity is? Weight? Attraction between two objects of mass?
Well, I don’t believe it is… at least not that, only.
Just as a beam of light is not just photons being reflected from a flower and into your eye, gravity is not just the evidence you see when you step on the scales every morning (HA! That’s a joke. If you do this every morning, you are way too obsessed). Gravity shares some properties with light. There has to be a source. Another similarity is that in the presence of two sources that are stationary to each other, you being between, gravity and light can be experienced from both sides. Also, distance has an effect as the source gets farther away with both the diminishing number of photons, and the diminishing number of, what, *graviton particles*?
One of the differences between light and gravity is that a distant light remains strong. A tiny beam of concentrated, focused light can not only be seen, but can illuminate an object far away. Gravity seems to have a fairly sudden loss in effect at increasing distances, and then remains a relatively slowly diminishing force in the vacuum between celestial objects. But in this regard the two are like comparing apples and oranges. Light can be focused off of the earth to travel in a concentrated beam, and gravity can’t even be synthesized.
If you descend into a black hole, feet first, you will experience spagettification. That means that at some point you will be feeling greater gravity on your feet, compared to your head. This force will increase as you get closer to the black hole, eventually stretching you and increasing until it breaks apart your atomic structures. This… after making you into an infinitely long stream of jelly (not pasta, but we get the analogy, right?). One thing… you won’t have time to feel it by the time you start to be pulled apart.
Gravity in a black hole can not only pull in photons, but also matter. Since we are speaking of FTL, then we are speaking of voyagers and their equipment. So the question remains, how fast would someone have to be going to reach escape velocity from a black hole? And would spagettification work in reverse? Would it happen if you are going fast enough to exit a black hole?
Going into a black hole is entirely different than coming out of one.
Going in to the black hole you could theoretically accelerate against the force, and as long as you can stay ahead of the speed that gravity is pulling, you might stay in one piece. I’m not sure this would work, but I am imagining the effect to be much like a fast boat pushing against the current while heading down an equally fast river, or an airplane speeding even faster with a strong tailwind.
Coming out of the black hole you are fighting gravity. Not only an infinitely strong force, but also the fastest thing in the universe. The force of gravity captures light.
One might come to the conclusion that once you get past the speed of light, you would automatically overcome the forces of gravity. I can’t say that embracing that conclusion would be a good idea. That kind of assumption might limit the possibilities. The force of gravity could travel far more quickly than light.
If a sun goes nova, breaking apart and spewing itself across the cosmos, and then coalesces into a black hole, how long does it take before we can measure the change in gravity? If the moon were to disappear suddenly, would the quick release of gravity cause the oceans to slosh as tides became non-existent?
Recently there has been an effort revealed that will focus a laser, a concentrated beam of light, on a solar sail to accelerate it across distances between stars. That has to be a very cool project, and I wish them well. I suspect that before any light-driven sail reaches the nearest star, there may be a gravity-driven object that will pass it by. Your (great?) grandchild may look out the window and wonder what that slow object is that they are passing. Maybe they will wave at it, hoping for a response, or maybe they will be going so fast that the object will escape their notice.
Disclaimer: I am not a physicist, a mathematician, nor astronomer, and this article is meant as a stretch to the imagination more than any serious suggestion that holds any facts. But if an uneducated science fiction writer like me can ask questions, it is no wonder the large brains of academia have found so many wonderful answers.
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www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
I've heard people say, “Nothing is faster than light!" all my life. You too, I bet. And the statement is said with such force, as though the pronouncement is written in stone. Fact.
So is light speed the ultimate velocity in our universe?
I submit that it is not.
Light is made up of photons. These are individual particles traveling en masse and emanating from a specific source.
The fact that they are particles speeding away from a source would beg the question... What is fast enough to catch particles of light? Not only that, once caught, what latches on and captures photons? The color/lack of color, black, captures light. But the light it absorbs has to be directed at it. Even the smallest distance between black and the path of the photon’s travels means that the light continues on, uncaptured.
How about Gravity? Well, black holes capture light. Not because black holes are black, but because light captured isn’t fast enough to escape. No light coming out... no color. None, not any, nyet, nothing, zero, not one, zip, nil, no part, not a bit, zilch. No photons escaping. So something must be tracking down the photons and capturing them, which means that whatever it is, is fast enough to catch light. Wouldn’t that mean it is faster? Seems to me that the awful pull of the black hole is that force, and the pull is supplied by gravity.
Escape velocity from Earth is 25,020 mph. So if light is traveling at 186,000 miles per second, what is the escape velocity required to exit a black hole? The strongest source of gravity in the known universe is a black hole. Just how fast is the speed of gravity?
I've never heard of that... The Speed of Gravity.
We speak of how heavy things are all the time. Isn’t that what gravity is? Weight? Attraction between two objects of mass?
Well, I don’t believe it is… at least not that, only.
Just as a beam of light is not just photons being reflected from a flower and into your eye, gravity is not just the evidence you see when you step on the scales every morning (HA! That’s a joke. If you do this every morning, you are way too obsessed). Gravity shares some properties with light. There has to be a source. Another similarity is that in the presence of two sources that are stationary to each other, you being between, gravity and light can be experienced from both sides. Also, distance has an effect as the source gets farther away with both the diminishing number of photons, and the diminishing number of, what, *graviton particles*?
One of the differences between light and gravity is that a distant light remains strong. A tiny beam of concentrated, focused light can not only be seen, but can illuminate an object far away. Gravity seems to have a fairly sudden loss in effect at increasing distances, and then remains a relatively slowly diminishing force in the vacuum between celestial objects. But in this regard the two are like comparing apples and oranges. Light can be focused off of the earth to travel in a concentrated beam, and gravity can’t even be synthesized.
If you descend into a black hole, feet first, you will experience spagettification. That means that at some point you will be feeling greater gravity on your feet, compared to your head. This force will increase as you get closer to the black hole, eventually stretching you and increasing until it breaks apart your atomic structures. This… after making you into an infinitely long stream of jelly (not pasta, but we get the analogy, right?). One thing… you won’t have time to feel it by the time you start to be pulled apart.
Gravity in a black hole can not only pull in photons, but also matter. Since we are speaking of FTL, then we are speaking of voyagers and their equipment. So the question remains, how fast would someone have to be going to reach escape velocity from a black hole? And would spagettification work in reverse? Would it happen if you are going fast enough to exit a black hole?
Going into a black hole is entirely different than coming out of one.
Going in to the black hole you could theoretically accelerate against the force, and as long as you can stay ahead of the speed that gravity is pulling, you might stay in one piece. I’m not sure this would work, but I am imagining the effect to be much like a fast boat pushing against the current while heading down an equally fast river, or an airplane speeding even faster with a strong tailwind.
Coming out of the black hole you are fighting gravity. Not only an infinitely strong force, but also the fastest thing in the universe. The force of gravity captures light.
One might come to the conclusion that once you get past the speed of light, you would automatically overcome the forces of gravity. I can’t say that embracing that conclusion would be a good idea. That kind of assumption might limit the possibilities. The force of gravity could travel far more quickly than light.
If a sun goes nova, breaking apart and spewing itself across the cosmos, and then coalesces into a black hole, how long does it take before we can measure the change in gravity? If the moon were to disappear suddenly, would the quick release of gravity cause the oceans to slosh as tides became non-existent?
Recently there has been an effort revealed that will focus a laser, a concentrated beam of light, on a solar sail to accelerate it across distances between stars. That has to be a very cool project, and I wish them well. I suspect that before any light-driven sail reaches the nearest star, there may be a gravity-driven object that will pass it by. Your (great?) grandchild may look out the window and wonder what that slow object is that they are passing. Maybe they will wave at it, hoping for a response, or maybe they will be going so fast that the object will escape their notice.
Disclaimer: I am not a physicist, a mathematician, nor astronomer, and this article is meant as a stretch to the imagination more than any serious suggestion that holds any facts. But if an uneducated science fiction writer like me can ask questions, it is no wonder the large brains of academia have found so many wonderful answers.
Click here to receive the Apocalypse Observer Newsletter in your inbox
www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
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