If the sun were to vanish instantly would earth immediately fly out of its orbit explain why or why not

Answer: No, because Einstein demonstrated that nothing can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum and for something to happen instantly over that distance would require that speed to be exceeded. If somehow the sun were to vanish, without explosive effects, an enormous gravity wave would begin travelling outward affecting the planets at the speed of light - thus taking about 8 minutes to reach earth. But that is irrelevant because the only way to remove all that matter would be total conversion of the mass to energy and that energy would totally destroy everything - after the same 8 minutes. Mike1942f · 9 years ago