Answer 1:
Turns out you asked a question that even
scientists don't know the answer to!
To really understand what happens, you would
have to solve some very complicated equations from
Albert Einstein's theory of General
Relativity, but by making some approximations
and using supercomputers, physicists are starting
to think they have a pretty good idea of what
would happen if two black holes collided.
Whenever two bodies (planets, stars, black
holes, or anything else) get close enough to each
other in space, they start to circle each other in
some sort of orbit.
General Relativity predicts that when
two black holes (which are very very massive) are
in an orbit like this they will generate something
called "gravitational waves" (which are
like ripples in space-time). Gravitational waves
are pretty complicated to explain, but in the
end they basically carry energy away from the
orbiting black holes which makes them get
closer and closer to one another with each orbit.
When the orbit eventually gets small enough, the
two black holes would merge.
The only things scientists can say
for sure about black hole collisions(after doing
all kinds of simulations on their supercomputers)
is that when two black holes collide they will
form a single, more massive black hole and that
there will be a huge burst of gravitational
waves.
There's research currently going on that
will try to make it possible to detect the results
of black hole collisions. Hopefully in a few more
years scientists can know the real answer to your
question!
Hope that was helpful (and not to
confusing...)! ;-) Click Here to return to the search form.
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