Does light affect spacetime?

Yes, photons bend spacetime.

How does gravity affect light if light does not have mass?

It might be surprising to you to hear that gravity can affect light even though light has no mass. If gravity obeyed Newton’s law of universal gravitation, then gravity would indeed have no effect on light. The gravitational curvature of light’s path is a weak enough effect that we don’t notice it much on earth.

Does gravity affect light speed?

Answer: The short answer is no, the speed of light is unchanged by gravity. If for example light travels from a distant star to Earth and passes by a black hole, the path of the light will get bent as it passes by the black hole, which will lengthen its travel time. The actual speed of light, though, is unchanged.

Does gravity bend space or spacetime?

Gravity is the curvature of spacetime It is here that Einstein connected the dots to suggest that gravity is the warping of space and time. Gravity is the curvature of the universe, caused by massive bodies, which determines the path that objects travel.

Does light bend in a gravitational field?

But that bending is not gravitational; it’s electromagnetic. However, light does bend when travelling around massive bodies like neutron stars and black holes. This is explained by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. We are all familiar with massive objects being influenced by gravity.

Is light affected by gravity?

It’s also interesting because there is some sense in which light does have “mass” (and therefore should be influenced by gravity… read on!) In our everyday experience, light seems to travel in straight lines, unaffected by gravity.

Can light bend in the universe?

Of course, light can bend when it passes through the interface between two media — think of light refracting as is passes from air into water, which is the phenomenon that causes a straw in a glass of water to appear kinked at the interface. But that bending is not gravitational; it’s electromagnetic.

Why do photons have no mass and bend light?

While it is true that photons have no mass, it is also true that we see light bend around sources with high mass due to gravity. This is not because the mass pulls on the photons directly, but instead because the mass warps the space-time through which the photons travel. Imagine a bowling ball on a mattress.