The Merging of Black Holes and Energy Release

When black holes come together, they unleash an immense amount of energy, predominantly through gravitational waves. This merging process starts with the black holes approaching each other, shedding orbital energy via interactions with surrounding matter and gravitational waves. Eventually, they collide and merge into a single black hole. The mass of this new black hole is less than the sum of the masses of the original black holes, as the lost mass is transformed into energy.