Colliding BlackHoles

What would happen if two black holes collided? Would the stronger one end up destroying the second one and taking in it's singularity point?

I read about this in a New Scientist magazine. I think they just somehow merge into one blackhole combining both masses. However I'm not sure I'll see if I can find the article.

I remember reading about them too. I believe they merge into one blackhole, with one event horizon and two singularities, what happens when matter enters one like this, I have no idea... it is almost beyond comprehension. The basic structure of something would resemble a snakes tongue, forking into both, ofcourse the geometry is exponentially more complex.

[edit on 18-9-2004 by Sigma]

Originally posted by mad scientist
I read about this in a New Scientist magazine. I think they just somehow merge into one blackhole combining both masses. However I'm not sure I'll see if I can find the article.

Here's article you're referring: www.newscientist.com...


Here's more (lot) answers for black hole questions, including collisions.
curious.astro.cornell.edu...

The merger of two black holes entails a lot of complicated General Relativity and some non-intuitive physics, but theorists use large supercomputers to simulate such events. There are two primary results to these mergers of which we can be sure of:

1. A single, more massive black hole

2. An extremely powerful burst of gravitational waves

Cheers for the link E_T

Thanks you all. Specially E_T for finding the link

Seeing as our Sagitarious A super massive Black Hole and subsequently our Milky way has absorbed another smaller galaxy there could well be or have been at some point in the Milky ways past an event of two super massive black holes merging.

Strangly enough the more massive the black hole the less gravitational force seems to occure. though gravitational waves do occure when black holes merge.

Actually it is very current science to be talking about this as there are several teams around the globe that are currently trying to ditect the warp in Space Time that ripples out from a black hole merge like the ripples of a pond.

There is another experiment going on at the moment to messure the warping of space time. Essencially a highly accurate spinning sphere in a geostationary orbit . over time the earth it's self would cause the sphere to alter it's direction of rotation predicted by Einstein. this would prove frame dragging.... Frame dragging is the warping of space-time around any moving mass. in the case of the earth the Gravity of the earth is warping space time around with it.

anyway, have fun People,

Tim,