Can black holes trap gravity waves?

Yes they can. Any accelerations of matter that happen inside the Schwarschild radius are trapped inside and contribute to the interior space-time being 'non-stationary'. This is believed to happen inside rotating black holes, or whenever matter falls into a black hole from outside. Gravity waves escape to infinity if they are emitted outside the horizon, but not inside.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
Return to Ask the Astronomer.