What is the speed of gravity?
GeneralClass 12AllAnswered 27 Mar 2026
Answer
Gravity travels at the speed of light: approximately 299,792,458 meters per second (about 300,000 km/s or 186,000 miles/s). This was confirmed by observations of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars. If the Sun suddenly disappeared, Earth would continue orbiting for about 8 minutes (the time light takes to reach Earth) before the change in gravitational field reached us. This speed limit is a fundamental constant of the universe predicted by Einstein's general relativity.
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