system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If the sun were to suddenly disappear, why would we keep orbiting for eight minutes?
gpt
The speed of light is universally the maximum speed. However, it's not just the speed of light. The same constant, C, also represents the fastest speed any 'influence' can travel, as far as we know. Not only light, but magnetic force, gravity, and everything, is transferred only at the speed of light.  

This means that an event taking place anywhere will take the distance divided by the speed of light to have an influence on a further object. Remove the sun, and it'd take the same time it takes for light to reach us - about 8 minutes - for the Earth to "realise" the sun is gone, and stop being affected by its gravity.