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Astronomy

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    $\begingroup$ Related: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/18769/… $\endgroup$
    – zephyr
    Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 15:17
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe you can get somewhere reading about contact binaries. Obviously they're not black holes, but the shape of the stars as they merge together is governed by the same laws of gravity as black holes, and they form similar shapes. This might be an easier topic to search for that will still answer your question. $\endgroup$
    – Cody
    Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 17:41
  • $\begingroup$ But the same problems arises; contact binaries have material transfer through a "bridge" between the two objects. Black holes, having "infinite" density, would have no such transfer. So the collision would have different dynamics because of this. $\endgroup$
    – Terran
    Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ My guess is they're showing a transient shape of the horizons, analogous to the shape of EM fields as two magnets or charged particles come together $\endgroup$
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 19:17