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Let there be a solar system without Earth. Now what happen if we place the Earth suddenly on its actual position does the gravitational force of sun acts on it immediately because of its pre established field or the force will act after 8 minutes (the force reaches with the speed of light) I just want to know that does field have an emergent nature like light.

Edit: can some body please tell me how can i collapse my question.I just want to know that does pre existing field cause a force instantly or not? But it's put on hold because it's off topic. (Sorry for bad english)

Gaurang Agrawal
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The force of the sun will act immediately on earth but the force of earth on the sun will take 8 minutes to reach sun.

Remember: Sun and earth orbit around a common center because earth is acting on the sun, too. Only that for the sun it’s rather a wobbly motion. This wobbling will not start more than 8 minutes after earth’s appearance. However, I’m not sure if and how earth’s orbit is affected a tiny bit by the missing of the wobbling until then.

Edit: However, these kind of gedanken experiments, the one from your question and my answer, should be taken with a grain of salt (a big one). Earths sudden "appearance" is unrealistic and it is unclear to me if any physically sensible conclusion can be drawn from it. But at least it is well-proven tradition in science to ask questions in that way even when they later turn out to lead to inconsistent situations.

Hartmut Braun
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