WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO BLACK HOLES COLLIDE? (INSANE)

An accretion disk is a swirling, flattened ring of gas, dust, and other material that forms around a massive object like a star, black hole, or neutron star due to its strong gravitational pull. As the material gets drawn in, it spirals closer, heating up from friction and pressure, which causes it to glow brightly—often in visible light, X-rays, or other wavelengths—before it’s eventually swallowed by the central object. Think of it like water circling a drain, but on a cosmic scale, where the "drain" is something incredibly dense and powerful. These disks are key to understanding how objects like black holes grow and how some stars are born.