One of my favorite things about black holes is that they are so strange, so odd, so out of scale to everything else in the universe that their mere existence invites questions.

In fact, it's more than invites.

Demands questions, creates questions. Black holes just manifest questions. Like when you're driving down the road and you see a really

odd car. It's painted a weird color as things sticking out of it. You just have to start

asking questions. It's like you don't get a choice. And black holes don't give

us any choice. They're here. They exist. They demand explanation. And so they make regular appearances

on this show because there's so much to ask about them. And today we're asking how do black holes

merge together? Can they merge together?

What happens when they collide? What about their singularities? And wait a minute, if nothing can

escape a black hole, how can two of these objects become one? I know I've talked about black hole

mergers before, especially when it comes to the generation of gravitational waves.

But I've realized after surveying my list of questions, of which there is a significant backlog,

but please don't let that deter you from asking your own question.

I've never gotten into the nitty-gritty of the merger process itself and how it unfolds.

And since this show is all about the nitty gritty, here we are with today's episode.

How exactly do black holes merge?

The first question we need to ask is, are we sure that black holes do merge?

And how would we know?

After all, black holes are black. Space is black.

If two black holes merge together, what evidence do we have that this process even happens in the

first place? And thankfully, that, my friend, says a very simple, very straightforward answer.

Oh yes, they merge, and we know it.

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