mooserider
07-30-2008, 09:24 PM
This is something I thought about for years now. I've even asked the question in other physics forums and never really got an answer. Albeit, I realize that its likely that no one really knows the answer, but it's a fun thought experiment.
Here's the scenario... there are two black holes moving at extremely high velocity relative to one-another. The two are moving towards each other such that they pass each other close enough so that their event horizons overlap briefly, but with high enough velocity that they wouldn't immediately collide (i.e., they both whip each other around and continue on their way, now moving away from one-another - they may eventually orbit back around and start towards each other later, but that's irrelevant).
Now, assuming this scenario is even possible, which I have no idea if it is, but it seems (superficially) as though it is... here's the delima...
The point at which the event horizons overlap, what would happen if there were some matter in the overlapping region? Say, some dust, a cosmic ray.... or for example, maybe a virtual partical spontaneously appears in, or falls into, the region.
Please understand I'm not a physicist, so try and keep any responses in laymens terms if possible. I read a lot of basic physics books for laymen (elegant universe and the like), so I can follow a little, but I'm not even a physics student, so go easy.
After thinking about this for a long time, my best guess at this point is that when the horizons overlap, the overlapping space doesn't really have the properties of an event horizon... perhaps they somehow cancel each other out while overlapping - the shape of that space is altered in some way so that the particle in the middle is never truely in two event horizons... but that's just my best guess at this point.
Any insight would be appreciated... and thanks in advanced!
Here's the scenario... there are two black holes moving at extremely high velocity relative to one-another. The two are moving towards each other such that they pass each other close enough so that their event horizons overlap briefly, but with high enough velocity that they wouldn't immediately collide (i.e., they both whip each other around and continue on their way, now moving away from one-another - they may eventually orbit back around and start towards each other later, but that's irrelevant).
Now, assuming this scenario is even possible, which I have no idea if it is, but it seems (superficially) as though it is... here's the delima...
The point at which the event horizons overlap, what would happen if there were some matter in the overlapping region? Say, some dust, a cosmic ray.... or for example, maybe a virtual partical spontaneously appears in, or falls into, the region.
Please understand I'm not a physicist, so try and keep any responses in laymens terms if possible. I read a lot of basic physics books for laymen (elegant universe and the like), so I can follow a little, but I'm not even a physics student, so go easy.
After thinking about this for a long time, my best guess at this point is that when the horizons overlap, the overlapping space doesn't really have the properties of an event horizon... perhaps they somehow cancel each other out while overlapping - the shape of that space is altered in some way so that the particle in the middle is never truely in two event horizons... but that's just my best guess at this point.
Any insight would be appreciated... and thanks in advanced!