How Does Gravity Affect Light?

Gravity bends light like a stretchy road. Imagine you're riding your bike on a flat path, but then the road suddenly curves because of a big hill nearby. That's what gravity does to light, it makes it curve as if it were going over a hill. This is why we see stars appear in slightly different places than they really are.

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Examples

A straw in a glass of water looks bent because of gravity-like refraction.
Stars appear shifted during an eclipse because their light is bent by the Sun's gravity.
Light from a distant galaxy can be stretched and distorted around a massive object, making it look like multiple galaxies.

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Categories: Physics · gravity,light,relativity