Quote:
Originally Posted by Baddad
Hey Astro Geeks, 
Light has a finite velocity. What about gravity? Can it be somehow illustrated whether gravity has a velocity component or not.
Matter would need to be created and then the gravity detected I would assume?
If it can somehow be 'blocked' would be interesting.
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Hi Marty,
Having only joined a few weeks ago, I am unsure of whether I should engage in such a discussion.
I am, however, prone to throwing caution to the wind so...
I had this idea a few years ago - does gravity act instantaneously or is there a lag effect? - as you stated, matter would need to be created to test this however.
What if we start with a large body, say a planet (to please the ethically minded the planet would be devoid of life) and proceed to transform the matter of the planet energy (in the form of, say, EM radiation).
Another body, a satellite of the first planet, would thus lose the gravitational force acting upon it and shoot off at a tangent.
We could measure the time difference between the matter-energy transfer and the shooting off at a tangent to determine if gravity does have a velocity component.
Am I in way over my head? Am I considering things I can not even begin to comprehend? YES. But I would like to know if my experiment is plausible or not.