Black holes, how powerful are they?

Question

If 2 black holes come along, and one is more powerful than the other, can the bigger black hole swallow the smaller black hole?

Answer 1

The two black holes would simply merge into a single more massive black hole.

Answer 2

Black holes merge when they come into contact!

Answer 3

they are stars that blow up and im not sure if one can take in the other or if the sun were to blow up if we would be sucked in by its force?? something to think about i quess

Answer 4

Yes, it can.  Essentially, each of the two black holes is made from a singularity of a specific mass at a specific point in space.  Being quite massive, there would be an attractive gravitational force between the two, and they would pull together.  The smaller one would move more quickly, however, as it takes less force to move something with less mass.

When they collide, the two singularities would combine into a single singularity with a mass equal to the sum of the masses of the previous two singularities, thus forming a larger black hole than existed previously.

This can happen between any set of black holes on collision courses with one another, regardless of whether or not one is more massive than an other, since they will all attract one another.

While singularities are infinitely dense, they are not infinitely massive, however, so it is entirely possible for two black holes to avoid merging together, if sufficient force is applied to counter their gravitational attraction.  A small black hole could be orbiting a very large star, for example.

Answer 5

The black hole is always in the middle of the galaxy. NASA has some pictures of one galaxy are colliding with another.  

Answer 6

It would be more like the 2 would merge and form a bigger black hole

Answer 7

No ones knows, because no one has ever seen a black hole.

Black holes are still just THEORIES.  No one knows for sure if they even exist.  The only evidence that they exist is purely mathematical.  in other words, "it just makes sense" that they would exists, but no one has every seen or measured one.  That is like saying, "We know fairies exist, because one plus one equals two"

>>IF<< they exists, they exist in all sizes, from giant one that are supposed to be at the center of galaxies, to tiny ones about the size of atoms.  The bigger they are the more powerful they are, and the longer they last.  The tiny ones last less than a second.

There are some people that say that the new Hadron Supercollider in Switzerland will produce black holes when they turn it on.  IF it can then this would be first time that anyone has ever seen or measured a black hole.  But the black hol;es in the collider would be only a little bit large than atoms, and would disappear in less than a second, wihtou being a danger to anybody.