Black holes bound to merge

[DesertFox]

Robert Roy Britt
Yahoo News
6 Apr 06


Two supermassive black holes have been found to be spiraling toward a merger, astronomers said today.

The collision will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing material equal to billions of stars, the researchers said.

Mergers between black holes are thought to be one way they grow. A handful of similar setups have been observed in which black holes appear inevitably on a merger course. This pair, at the center of a galaxy cluster called Abell 400, was known to be close but their fate hadn't been determined.

More (http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060406/sc_space/blackholesboundtomerge)

[DesertFox]

Luss play, NAME THEM THERE BLACK HOLES!

One is Wyatt, t'other is Junker.

[DeclinetoState]

Black holes merging: isn't that something like Michael Moore's brain merging with Mike Farrell's?

[DoctorDoom]

So which of the black holes will be the swallower, and which one the swallowee? Will the collision be visible?

The collision will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing material equal to billions of stars, the researchers said.Any black hole can do that. It's just a matter of giving it access to the material.

[Un Con Troll Able]

I'd love to see of those bad boys gobble a big star. That would be a sight to see.

[DesertFox]

Yeah. Kinda neat to watch the star sailing by, minding its own bidness, and suddenly veer sharply south and zap! outta sight!

I've seen some simulations and drawings of what light would like from inside the black hole as it came in, from just above the horizon as the light came in, and from a few miles out as the light came in. It's astonishing what the grip of gravity does.

From what I've read, black holes in galactic centers max out at about 3 billion suns' worth of mass unless a rogue black hole comes zipping thru and the two coalesce. I'd wanna be a few gazillion light years away when that happened.

[ThomasMore]

The further the better...

[DeclinetoState]

Won't we all eventually be swallowed in a black hole? Perhaps we're already in one now. If so, well, it's probably Bush's fault . . . :D