If the sun just suddenly disappeared, it would take around 8 minutes or so for us to know it as it takes light that long to reach us from the sun. What about gravity, would there be any time lag or would we immediately be flung out into space?
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ANSWERS: 4
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We wouldn't be "flung out into space", we would stop *turning* toward the sun all the time. In other words, we'd continue on the path we had at the moment the sun disappeared... the absence of its gravity (after an 8 minute lag) would allow us to finally break free of that domineering ball of burning helium!
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1) See my answer here about the speed of gravity: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4323204 2) The Earth would go in the direction of its speed vector at the moment of the disappearance, which means: - 29.783 km/s in the direction of the tangent of its orbit around the sun, due to the orbital speed around the Sun (actually, we must rather consider the Earth-Moon system) - 2.20×105 m/s in the direction of the movement of the sun (due to the orbit of the sun around the center of the Galaxy) Those two velocities add as 3-D vectors. After the disappearance of the Sun, the rest of the solar system could also reorganize around the bigger planets Jupiter and Saturn. Whichever system appears, because the total mass would much smaller mass than the Sun mass, that system would have to take an orbit much further from the center of the Galaxy.
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Like every other kind of 'signal', gravitational fields are propagated at the speed of light. So if the sun somehow suddenly disappeared, the earth would continue in its normal orbit for 8 minutes before the gravitational field from the sun disappeared, changing its trajectory.
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Actually, I THINK that when the sun is extinguished, the gravitational pull increases. We would be hurling towards the sun (but it still would take a while to get there...it wouldn't be immediate). :D
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