By eldercactus, r*ddit link

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Genuine question, but does the sun's gravity put it in black hole territory? I thought black holes had such massive gravity that not even light can escape it…and the sun produces a lot of light…

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    I mean more so nothing else in the universe can create such a gravitational pull than a star.

    if you think about celestial bodies on a graduated scale stars and black holes are practically in the same "class".

    the difference is, you can escape the gravity of a star (with much difficulty) but you could never escape the gravity of a black hole.

    that said, time dilation can happen before reaching the event horizon of a black hole. we have observed this as light emitting around a black hole, kind of like a mirage.

    light, radio, magnetism, electricity are all based on different waveforms of similar energy and gravity is a constant influence to that energy. it can be used to bend or refract the beams like water does to light from an observation point.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    It's more accurate to say that gravity bends spacetime. The light we see being bent around a black hole is a consequence of that, and is evidence for time dilation as it is also evidence of space dilation. And (being extremely pedantic here, I know,) gravity bends spacetime and light travels through that spacetime in a straight line.

    Being in any gravity well will slow your time ever so slightly, by the time you die your feet will be about 100-500 nanoseconds younger than the top of your head due to being closer to the earth!

  • source
  • parent