Evidence for Frame Dragging Black Holes
Drawing Credit & Copyright:
J. Bergeron, Sky & Telescope Magazine
Gravity can do more than floor you.
According to
recent measurements of a
star system thought to contain a black hole, it can spin you too.
This effect, called frame-dragging, is most prominent near massive, fast spinning objects.
Now, a team led by
W. Cui
(MIT)
has used the orbiting
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to search for it near a system
thought to contain a
black hole.
Cui's team claim that matter in this system gets caught up
and spun around the
black hole at just the rate expected from frame-dragging.
Such discoveries help scientists better understand
gravity itself.