Planet with Two Stars

There was a interesting discussion on Slashdot on the plausibility of having a planet with two suns (*cough* Tatooine), and one commenter pointed out the above picture, which shows a collision between two black holes.

The discussion ended in a stalemate (one side said that gravitational forces would result in an inherently unstable system, other side said that space is mind-bogglingly big, and anything can happen), but there were a number of interesting quotes from cited science articles:

When the black holes get as close as 1 light-year apart, they will begin to merge . . . "They are now spiraling towards each other," Komossa said of that future event. "The final merging of the black holes, to form a single one of larger mass, will be accompanied by an enormous burst of gravitational waves."

During the final stages, more and more gas rains down on the two black holes. . . Komossa: "The gas will heat itself up in the process, and start to emit huge amounts of radiation, strongly increasing the luminosity of the nucleus of the galaxy, outshining the whole galaxy in its brightness by a large factor. The strong radiation field will start to destroy the dust in the environment of the nucleus, giving an outside observer an even clearer view on the nucleus of the galaxy. The powerful radiation will also hinder part of the infalling matter to actually reach the black hole's horizon and disappear within the black hole; instead the material will be driven out again by strong radiation pressure, and huge outflows or jets may built up."

Space is cool :)