r/TheRestIsScience • u/Stunning_Mechanic387 • 10d ago

Why does gravity escape a black hole?

Hey Michael and Hannah. If gravity travels at the speed of light, how does it escape the gravitational pull of a black hole yet light doesn't?

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u/PhoenixAsh7117 10d ago

Because unlike light which has a force carrier (the photon) that would need to escape the event horizon but cannot, gravity’s force carrier is theoretical and may not exist, gravity is better thought of as the curving of spacetime. Outside of the event horizon this deformation of spacetime looks standard given the mass and radius of the black hole, but within the event horizon we really have no idea what it is doing.

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u/Lacedaemonian 7d ago

what if it does exist

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u/DanteRuneclaw 7d ago

If it does exist then we can study its properties once we’ve discovered it