WHEN BLACK HOLES COLLIDE

One of the most cataclysmic events to occur in the cosmos involves the collision of two black holes. Formed from the collapse of massive stars, black holes are incredibly compact; somone standing near a stellar-mass black hole would feel gravity about a trillion times stronger than they would on Earth. When two objects of this extreme density spiral together and merge they radiate more explosive energy than all the stars in the universe combined. When two black holes collide into each other to form a new bigger black hole, they violently roil spacetime, sending ripples called gravitational waves outward in all directions. These intertwined black holes help measure how fast the universe is expanding and lead to a better understanding of how the cosmos evolved, what it is composed of and what its ultimate destiny will be. This collision of two black holes could be considered the ultimate galactic grudge match. Therein lies the truth behind the most mysterious and frightening phenomenon in the cosmos.