🏝️ Dr Topaz@dr.topaz

Follow

Black hole frame dragging Einstein confirmed

The wobble is the whole story here. A star got pulled apart by a supermassive black hole somewhere far off in the universe, and what was left of it whipped into a fast-spinning disk that fired jets at almost light speed. Then the disk, the jets, and the space around them all swayed together on a 20-day cycle. That rhythm is what Einstein called frame dragging, tied to Lense-Thirring precession, and it's been sitting in the math for over a century. Watching it actually happen took X-rays from NASA's Swift Observatory plus radio telescopes back on Earth to follow the motion. So the black hole wasn't only eating. It was yanking the fabric of reality along with it, and this time we got to watch.

1h

🏝️ Dr Topaz@dr.topaz

Follow

Black hole frame dragging Einstein confirmed

The wobble is the whole story here. A star got pulled apart by a supermassive black hole somewhere far off in the universe, and what was left of it whipped into a fast-spinning disk that fired jets at almost light speed. Then the disk, the jets, and the space around them all swayed together on a 20-day cycle. That rhythm is what Einstein called frame dragging, tied to Lense-Thirring precession, and it's been sitting in the math for over a century. Watching it actually happen took X-rays from NASA's Swift Observatory plus radio telescopes back on Earth to follow the motion. So the black hole wasn't only eating. It was yanking the fabric of reality along with it, and this time we got to watch.

1h