What would happen if a black hole encountered another black hole?

Question

Just wondering what would happen if two black holes encountered one another...would one be sucked in and add that gravity to the other? Or would they be immune to eachother?

Answer 1

They are really like any other gravitational body like a star or planet. So it depends on their angular momentum. They could orbit one another or combine or slingshot apart.

Answer 2

They'll slowly spiral closer to each other until they merge, releasing a burst of gravity waves in the process.

Answer 3

They'd merge.  It's one way that small black holes become big black holes.

Answer 4

It depends on their trajectories.  They would either alter each other's velocity and slingshot each other off in another direction, fall into orbit of each other, or collide.

If by "encounter" you are referring to the latter, then the two of them would combine masses to form a single, larger black hole, most likely expelling enormous amounts of energy into the cosmos.

Answer 5

there is a possibility that both will collide also due to their gravitational force that kept on pulling each other.