The Impact of the Eccentricity on the Collapse of an Ellipsoid into a Black Hole

We consider the gravitational collapse of a homogeneous pressureless ellipsoid. We have shown that the minimal size r that the ellipsoid can reach during collapse depends on its initial eccentricity e0 as r proportional to e0 nu, where nu approximate to 15/8, and this dependence is very universal. We have estimated the parameters (in particular, the initial eccentricity) of a homogeneous pressureless ellipsoid, whereat it collapses directly into a black hole. Our consideration is purely Newtonian, but we present a discussion suggesting that the results obtained within the framework of general relativity are unlikely to be significantly different.