Quote:
Originally Posted by that_guy
I heard in a documentary where it said that gravity travels at the speed of light... so "IF" the sun goes SN, would we be flung out of the way before the blast reaches??
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Ah yes, I've heard of this. There are quite a few theories on what would happen to Earth if the sun went super. If gravitons (the force-carrier particles of gravity, not yet proven btw) do move at light speed, while the material from the explosion has to be at a lower speed (although not my much), then we may very well escape being vaporised, at least to start with. The bow shock will unfortunately quite quickly catch up with us.
Another theory is that as the sun expands as it will in 5 billion years, it becomes increasing lighter as it does so, reducing its gravitational pull on us, again allowing us to possibly float away to safety, to a new orbit around our new red giant. Even so, any remaining inhabitants will still be melted by our new proximity to the star.
Class dismissed.
