Submitted by Party_9001 t3_zkuihq in askscience
boundbylife t1_j02evd2 wrote
Reply to comment by absrdbrdtrdmagrdIII in What would 2 stars colliding at relativistic speeds do? (1 solar mass, 10% of c) by Party_9001
Maybe, but unlikely.
2M is considered the low end for the possibility of black hole formation. But for the resultant mass to be exactly 2M, you'd have to have both bodies' motion perfectly cancel each other - a glancing blow by either body would result in some of the mass being ejected from the system. And at a fraction of c, the fractional mass would quickly escape the larger mass's gravitational influence, so it wouldn't return and reform. The odds of two bodies having the exact opposite x, y, and z velocities is just, well, astronomical.
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