Woah!

Who said that gravity operates instantaneously? There is no observation that justifies this 'Newtonian' statement, and lots of evidence from special and general relativity that gravity obeys the speed limit set by the speed of light. The dynamics of our solar system, with light travel times up to several hours, would be very different if gravity acted instantaneously. The calculation of planetary positions and their mutual gravitational influences would lead to different predictions for where the planets are in the sky at a specific time, especially for the planets beyond Jupiter where the light travel times are the longest.

Return to Dr. Odenwald's Gravity page at the Astronomy Cafe Blog.