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Does a Black Hole Have a Shape?
StartsWithABang writes: When you think about a black hole, you very likely think about a large amount of mass, pulled towards a central location by the tremendous force of gravity. While black holes themselves may be perfectly spherical (or for rotating black holes, almost perfectly spherical), there are important physical cases that can cause them to look tremendously asymmetrical, including the possession of an accretion disk and, in the most extreme case, a merger with another black hole.
Time for some physics lectures by an actual physicst instead!
For example, start here.
I don't know, What Interesting Things Can I Power With an External USB Battery? comes pretty close.
But yes, this is pretty bad. And if you click through to the article, you'll find that it's every bit as moronic as the summary makes it sound.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Actually, a good friend of mine Dave Nielson (professor BYU) did his PhD at the University of Texas on this very subject -- sort of. (His PhD was on what happens when two black holes collide.) So I asked him what happens when they collide and he said that they deform. The orbiting black hole and the central black hole both deform in the way you would expect. After they collide, they merge and the whole thing wobbles. (Think water or oil drops in zero G.) I left unimpressed -- not because he didn't do great work but, black holes deform under gravity and exhibit all the properties you would expect with regular fluids when they are attracted to each other or collide..