If light is energy (electromagnetic radiation) and not mass, why does gravity effect it?

Question

I thought gravity only attracted matter/mass? If a black hole sucks in even light, how is gamma radiation (energy) able to escape it and not light?

Answer 1

because the gama is less dense and rises and therefore is affected by gravity.

Answer 2

Gravity is not a force.  It is an attribute of mass that warps the space surrounding that mass.  The larger the mass, the larger the warping.  It is this distortion of the fabric of spacetime that results in light "seeming" to bend.  It is really still traveling in a straight line along the curve of space.

Answer 3

1) photons have relativistic mass because of their velocity

2) black holes actually bend the "shape" of space.  since photons travel in space they follow the path of least resistance, so they follow the path bent by the black hole.  black holes, of course, bend space so much that the path of least resistance means *into* the black hole, which is why they don't escape.

That explains it without getting too technical at this time.

Answer 4

Good question. Light travels in straight lines, but intense gravity bends space itself so that the straight lines are bent. It's a geometry effect rather than the light being attracted to the hole.

Answer 5

Gamma is very high powered form of light beyond visible light (in frequency).

I would say the further you go outward from the center of the black hole, away from the event horizon and away from the actual singularity that the black hole resides, you have a drop off of latent radiation frequencies. Gamma being one of those frequencies. A Reverberation (echo/rebound) from the singularity and through the event horizon. The event horizon being like an energy membrane. Gamma rays are allowed to escape because of the frequency. From the singularity and outward you have inverse square law controlling the dissipation rate of energies and that of frequencies (doppler...blue to red shift for example). At the very heart of the blackhole the frequencies are probably staggeringly high, even that of which is beyond the gamma ray. Why don't they escape? Maybe they do and we are not detecting them because of the extreme rates of vibration they are at.

So a connection to blackhole creation and also to perhaps escaping one is through frequency. If you cover your ship over with a forcefield vibrating beyond gamma rays, but you are shielded from the high freqs, you may be able to free yourself from a potential blackhole. Or better yet, you may be able to create one outside of the ship using the high frequencies to mimic the blackhole!

:)

Answer 6

Light is energy and mass. (supposedly... it's still a little up in the air). Light is moving photons tiny particles that move about in different wavelengths and bounce off of the subatomic parts of atoms.