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If the Sun stopped shining now it would still appear to be shining for eight-ish minutes. Same with a more distant event, if something (say a supernova) is observed today in a star 50 light years away, the event took place fifty years ago.
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lion-cake Bad lion-cake, bad., Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:23,
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So what your saying is
we would continue to receive radiation from the sun until the 8 minute period was over and then we would all turn to blocks of ice. Similarly if a catastrophic event happened say 2000 light years away and therefore through our telescopes 2000 years ago we wouldnt feel any reaction to said event until the light reached us?
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lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:44,
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I may be wrong here,
but I think that yes, we would still see the light for 8 minutes, but the gravitational effect would be felt immediately?
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Redsushi! Whoop! Whoop! Yes, that one!, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 15:01,
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yeah thats what Im wondering
So if gravity is an ever present force instantly exerting itself upon everything around it wouldnt that cause anomalies between what we see in the vast distance many millions of light years away and what is actually out there given that old stars may no longer be there, even though we can see them in the past with our telescopes.
I tried to read a brief history of time twice and failed both times.
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lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 15:25,
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