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archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cy ··· nat.htmlBasically it boils down to this: there is a point at which you cannot escape from the gravitational pull of a black hole. That point is variable depending on the mass of the hole. Now, beyond that point the gravity of the black hole can affect other things with "visible" effect - and I suspect that these ripples may be the results of the effect at a distance of that black hole.
Other examples of action at a distance with no apparent physical connection: watch a compass needle swing in response to the pull of the magnetic poles. Gravity in general: all objects exert a gravitational pull on all other objects. In theory this extends across the entire universe and seems to be instantaneous (faster than light?). Given this, one might think that eventually the whole expanding mess, black holes included, will fall back together to create a single mega-black-hole and go through the whole Big Bang thing again.
BUT recent information has shown that the universe is actually expanding faster than it may have shortly after the Big Bang and that the expansion may continue to accelerate, meaning that there will never be a second Big Bang because everything is going to fly off in every direction forever!
Einstein actually came close to predicting this, but it was one area that he was unable to overcome his upbringing and rural thought patterns about. He found it impossible to accept the fact that the universe would be either expanding or contracting and tried very hard to find a mathmatical solution to the problem that would provide for a "stable state universe". He actually found that value, but then determined that the least little change in anything (like the flapping of a butterfly's wings at the wrong moment) would bring utter chaos to his formula. He never published his findings on the matter, and thus probably missed out on another Nobel Prize.