Does the Sun warp its own light?

[Galaktican]

It's a known fact that stars bend light because of their gravity. So, it seems logical that the light coming to us from our Sun is bent, also, right? Is there sort of a lensing affect going on? Is the Sun slightly bigger or smaller compared to what we see because of it? Or, am I totally off base here?

 

[SteveCNC]

since most of the light we see isn't travelling tangent to the sun but more perpendicular , I would only expect a possible red shift from climbing directly out of a gravity well rather than passing by its edge .

 

[theridane]

Actually from the photons we intercept only very few emerge perpendicular to the solar surface - the ones coming from the center of the solar disc. Other photons come at us at an angle, and coronal photons start their journeys almost tangential. I imagine there's some warping involved, that actually makes us observe a larger Sun than what it really is. Not by much though (probably within 5%), as Sun isn't that heavy and even the coronal photons spend only very little time in the butter zone of the gravity field.

 

[SteveCNC]

I guess my thoughts on the amount of warp caused even at the most extreme tangent point would be at least 50% less than light that originated beyond the sun since it travels at least 50% less through the gravitational field .

 

[theridane]

Yea, that sounds right. I wonder if our observations are corrected for this...