What If 2 Black Holes Collide? | Supermassive Black Hole Collision

   what if a black hole approached  a black hole a black hole  is one of the universe's terrifyingly  unstoppable forces  a destructive chasm in space and time  with an appetite so voracious  that not even light can escape its  gravitational pull  one black hole is a force to be reckoned  but what happens when a second black  hole comes  a little too close for comfort welcome  to   and today we'll be exploring the ins and  outs of black holes  no pun intended and just what would  happen if two decided to tango  in what would happen if a black hole  approached  a black hole hit that subscribe button  if you're not already  on board and get ready to have your mind  blown  what is a black hole in short  a black hole is the largest single  structure in the universe  that we know of it's massive in terms of  its sheer  size but also in the mind-boggling  amount of mass contained within its  center  their gravity is so great that nothing  can escape their ever devouring more  not planets suns stars dust air  even electromagnetic radiation including  light  the super dense core of the singularity  sucks in  everything around it and to date we have  no real idea  of what lies beyond there's no light  reflected back for us to see  this threshold is called the event  horizon  and is literally defined as being the  point of no return  for any unfortunate particle or ray how  does a black hole  form the best way to think of a black  hole is by picturing a bike pump  imagine the pump itself is made of an  indestructible material that will not  break  no matter the unbelievable pressure  exerted on it  then imagine the air and space inside  the pump  as the mass of a star physics and  experience will tell you that after a  certain point  the piston at the center of the pump  compresses the air  all the way up to the point where it  can't go any further  the gas cannot be condensed any further  as there is only a tiny amount of space  left in the pump and the pressure builds  to a point where no matter how hard you  try  you can't squeeze the pump any tighter  when we are talking about a star  gravity is the pump there are no  limitations on its durability  and eventually the matter of the star is  condensed well beyond the limit of the  laws of physics  something has to give the pump has to  break  but it's indestructible in this instance  what gives is the star inside  the surface of the sun undergoes a  transformation  into what is referred to as ashfar  shield envelope  a unique state of being that allows the  contents of the star to expand  rather than contract an extremely weird  concept  as a result a black hole is born as the  internal matter of the shell of the star  is converted from mata  into raw radiation as this occurs the  schwarzschild envelope which is the  former outside shell of the star  develops an insanely strong  gravitational pull  with an escape velocity equal to the  speed of light  the star's own internal energy made from  its mass  becomes forever trapped as it's  impossible to condense the contents  any further and just like that a star  reaches the end of its lifespan  and burns out the gravitational force  produces  an unnaturally dense core which  collapses  and makes way for an event horizon that  not even  light can escape from can we detect  black  holes we know what a black hole is and  how it forms so can we detect it  the short answer is yes  evidence left by black holes gives away  their location  size and mass turns out they have a  gravitational effect on surrounding  luminous matter  in the same way as planets stars and  other large celestial bodies  have gravitational effects on each other  when one star in a binary solar system  dies  the black hole begins ripping gas and  particles from its companion star  and other planets as its core collapses  and grows even more dense  as the gas is sucked in it becomes  superheated  and emits signature x-rays as it spirals  towards the event horizon  and its eventual doom so to hunt for a  black hole the easiest method  is to start looking for a binary system  that is pumping out a huge volume of  x-ray radiation but binary systems are  not  overly common and a single supermassive  black hole exists at the center of most  galaxies  including our own milky way galaxy often  these huge structures have no new  neighbors and are not tearing off  any gas or dust particles and don't have  the presence of the dead giveaway  x-rays like binary systems the secret  lies in looking at what is around  a black hole planets moons asteroids  all orbit around each other and around  their own system's sun  these orbits are stable easily  calculated and only change when the sun  undergoes its supernova  and subsequent death but a black hole  bends the space-time continuum  in such a way that the gravitational  forces affect everything around it  however small by studying if there is a  slight amount of drift of celestial  bodies towards a focal origin  you can bet that at the focal point of  that origin  is a black hole  can we see black holes  up until april 2019 scientists had no  concrete proof  showing a black hole we knew they  existed  based on observations of the forces  acting on other celestial bodies  and the fact that the framework of  modern astrophysics theory  dictates they must in fact form when a  star eventually dies  everything all changed when an  international network of eight  radio telescopes around the globe acting  as one singular unit  an imaginatively dubbed event horizon  telescope  made history by being the first to  capture an image  of a black hole this may seem strange as  a black hole literally cannot be seen  due to its very nature  the trick was to search for a black hole  positioned in such a way  that it was between the observers on  earth and a distant  super bright star cluster a supermassive  black hole at the center of the messier  87  proved it could get over its fear of the  camera and in the image  the black hole can be seen showing a  shadow against a disk of bright light  looking like a great big cosmic donut  it's a whopper too  with a mass 6.5 billion times that  of our own sun  so what happens as two black holes  approach each other and eventually  collide  in the exact way that the gravitational  forces of a black hole suck in space  around it  black holes pull each other in it's  possible that supermassive black holes  at the center of their own galaxies  over an astronomically long time can  move  towards each other in a spiraling orbit  the black holes circle each other  exactly 180 degrees apart  with the orbits getting smaller and  smaller  until boom they collide and start to  merge  the force is so great that gravitational  waves  x-rays and light break free of their  prison for an  instant from the sheer heat caused by  the merger  a corona of hot x-ray emitting gas is  formed  and jets of particles are spewed out and  launched outwards at speeds extremely  close to the speed of light  what is left is a black hole with a  combined force of the two  similar to how two droplets of water  fuse to form a bigger drop  the new improved black hole is free to  continue on its merry way  pulling in the fabric of space time for  all eternity  or until it meets a new contender for  the title has a black hole collision  happened before  absolutely back in april 2015 louisiana  and washington state universities  detected gravitational waves made by two  black holes  as they slammed into each other this duo  of cosmic vacuum cleaners fought for the  title of biggest dyson in the universe  until only one came out the victor  swallowing and absorbing the other  in may of 2019 two gravitational wave  detectors located at palomar observatory  in san diego  spotted what is thought to be the first  light flare from a black hole collision  ever witnessed two partner black holes  each a dozen times the size of our own  sun  were orbiting a third supermassive black  hole  millions of times their size the two  smaller black holes became caught in  each other's gravitational orbit  causing them to spiral and eventually  merge with a force large enough to shoot  the new black hole off in a random  direction  away from the third bigger brother this  kick caused it to plow through a cloud  of gas  with the friction causing it to light up  bright enough to be seen  from earth triple black hole fast  forward to june 2020  and what's better than two black holes  colliding  three a triple galaxy merger has been  spotted  a billion light years from earth a rare  trio  of supermassive black holes are caught  in a mexican standoff  and destined to one day come together  the event was stumbled upon by accident  by the university of virginia  while looking for partnered black holes  and is an amazingly rare phenomenon  there's no cause for alarm though as  they're between 10 000  and 30 000 light years away from each  other meaning the main event will happen  in well over 200 generations time  and that's it for what would happen if a  black hole  approached a black hole if you enjoyed  this article  please give it a like and make sure you  subscribe to  with that  notification button clicked  why not check out some more amazing  articles from