• Question: If gravitons travel at the speed of light, and the escape velocity of a black hole is greater than the speed of light, how is it that the gravitons can escape from the black hole?

    Asked by strangeness to Arttu, Ceri, James_M on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Arttu Rajantie

      Arttu Rajantie answered on 23 Jun 2011:


      Even gravitons cannot escape a black hole. You should not think of a strong gravitational field as consisting of a large number of gravitons, although for weak fields that picture works. One analogy that could help you think of that is a tsunami. Gravitons are like small waves in the sea. A tsunami is a wave, too, but cannot describe it as collection of a large number of small waves.

    • Photo: Ceri Brenner

      Ceri Brenner answered on 23 Jun 2011:


      Yeah I agree with arttu, I don’t think anything can escape a black hole because of the curvature of space-time.

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