(published on 06/13/2011)
That's a nice question. If somehow a black hole could appear without any gravitational bending of spacetime associated with it, we'd have trouble explaining what could happen. However, that's not what happens, or what can happen. As the black hole gradually forms, the gravitational effects from that mass already extend out throughout space. In other words, gravity doesn't have to escape the black hole and travel elsewhere, it already is elsewhere before the black hole forms. Incidentally, as we mention above, it actually takes the black hole infinitely long to fully form, so we actually never quite get to that stage.
Mike W.
"Our Theory of Gravitation is as good as perfect.... Nothing can act but where it is...; only, WHERE is it?" Thomas Carlyle. 1831
(published on 08/13/2013)