How does gravity bend light around massive objects?

Light bends around massive objects because gravity pulls on it, just like how a heavy ball can pull on a stretchy fabric.

Imagine you're playing with a toy car on a trampoline. If the trampoline is empty, the car zooms straight. But if you put a big, heavy ball in the middle of the trampoline, it stretches the surface and makes a "dent." Now when the car rolls near that dent, its path curves, it follows the stretched fabric instead of going straight.

That’s what happens with light and gravity. A massive object like the Sun or a black hole acts like that heavy ball on the trampoline, it stretches space around it. When light, which is like a tiny car zooming super fast, passes by, it feels that stretch and bends its path.

Sometimes, we can see this bending effect when light from a distant star or galaxy travels past a massive object on its way to us, the object makes the light curve, and we see the star or galaxy in a different place than it really is. It’s like looking at a fish in a bowl, the water bends the light, so the fish seems shifted.

It's not magic, it's just how gravity works with space and light!