Black holes are ravenous monsters so powerful that nothing can escape their greedy maws.

But what happens when two of these dark monsters encounter each other?

Nasa has released a simulation which shows a pair of holes merging.

The action in the video would take place over just one-third of a second if viewed in real time but has been slowed down so we can see what’s going on.


A simulated image of a supermassive black hole

Astronomers first detected the aftereffects of such a collision in 2015, when gravitational waves produced by two monsters smashing into each other to form a huge mega-hole were detected here on Earth



Nasa explained: ‘Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one.

‘The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh both inside and outside the Einstein rings even after the black holes have merged.’

We know that many black holes form when stars collapse at the end of their lives.

However, the formation of ‘supermassive’ black holes remains a mystery and may involve mergers between several behemoths.

Supermassive holes have been observed at the centre of galaxies including our own.

Last week, scientists captured the first-ever image of a black hole within the galaxy M87.