Why don't gravitational waves occur in Newtonian physics?

This is a surprisingly subtle question. Sources that reference the infinite speed of light are misleading and don't give the complete or fully correct answer. TL;DR: Waves occur in theories that are described by wave equations. read more

TL;DR: Waves occur in theories that are described by wave equations. Newton's gravity isn't described by a wave equation. Einstein's General Relativity doesn't change this fact. The fields that wave in General Relativity are not the one that is described by Newtonian gravity. Technical Origin of Waves: Stick with me through this section. read more

It’s been a big few weeks for gravitational waves. Astronomers only recently unveiled the fourth confirmed detection, spawned by a set of colliding black holes. And on October 3, LIGO founders Rai Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics for their work to detect gravitational waves. read more