If the universe formed into a number of black holes, what would happen to/in the space between them?

Question

Would the black holes pull themselves toward each other also, or could they possibly empty space of all matter in between?

Yes bob-bob but 'shortly' before that? I'm not asking what will happen, it is an 'if this is the case' question.

Answer 1

Many astronomers believe that a black hole lies at the centre of most galaxies including our own. Two black holes could collide with each other when two galaxies merge.

Eventually they will merge into each other although theoretically they should in fact orbit one another. The existence of stars in between the two black holes prevents them from orbiting. The stars in between may be "sling-shot" out of the galaxy or swept into the black hole or have it's course radically altered but remain within the newly formed galaxy.

When the two black holes are within a light year of each other it is believed according to theory that they should emit gravitational waves. NASA has a project called LISA whose aim is to detect these gravitational waves from black hole mergers.

For more information see the link below. I hope this helps to answer your question. (Apologies for the fact that two of the links are for kids, but sometimes I think these are better for explaining things in a way we can understand.)

Answer 2

Black holes have massive gravity, of course they would pull towards each other! That's what gravity does.

Why would the universe turn into black holes? Are you implying some distant time when the black holes supposedly at the centre of most galaxies have swallowed up those galaxies? In this case there would still be matter in the space between the black holes, including the galaxies that don't have black holes to swallow them. Since the universe is expanding such matter would only be swept up if there was a universe collapse; whether that would happen is still an open question.

OR do you mean that POOF! the universe suddenly turns into black holes? In this case you might as well speculate that all matter in the universe is involved in this magical transformation and is incorporated into the nearest black hole as part of the transformation, thus emptying space of all other matter.

Answer 3

Assuming the black holes formed by collapse of existing stars surrounding the singularity point, nothing would happen. For example, if the Sun were suddenly to condense to a singularity for some reason, the earth would carry on orbiting exactly as before.

Newton tells us that the attraction between two bodies is proportional to their two masses multiplied together, divided by the square of the distance between their centres. The mass in a black hole hasn't changed, only its radius. The centre-to-centre distance between the black hole and its orbiting body is also the same, so the attraction force remains the same.

Likewise, if the mass in the middle of our galaxy is a black hole (and it probably is) our sun and other stars keep swirling round it.

Answer 4

Nothing, there are black holes in the middle of every galaxy, and we're still here!!!

Black holes only affect their immediate surrounding, and those very close together would attract and merge, but at some point equilibrium would be reached and the black holes would cease to expand, as there would be no further matter to attract in their field of influence

Answer 5

That's an interesting question. Where's Stephen Hawkings when you need him.

I guess the underlying question is will the universe eventually shrink to a singularity by means of everything being sucked into a black hole? I believe it will.

Answer 6

the universe will implode in this manner but not for a long time. time and space will always exist tho

Answer 7

Possibly. Let me tell you one thing...before that will happen we will all be long gone!!!