Astronomers witness the dragging of space-time in stellar cosmic dance

An international team of astrophysicists led by Australian Professor Matthew Bailes, from the ARC Centre of Excellence of Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), has shown exciting new evidence for 'frame-dragging'—how the spinning of a celestial body twists space and time—after tracking the orbit of an exotic stellar pair for almost two decades. The data, which is further evidence for Einstein's theory of General Relativity, is published today the journal Science.

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Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence

Artist's depiction of 'frame-dragging': two spinning stars twisting space and time.

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Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence

Artist's depiction of a rapidly spinning neutron star and a white dwarf dragging the fabric of space time around its orbit.

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"Pulsars are cosmic clocks. Their high rotational stability means that any deviation to the expected arrival time of its pulses is probably due to the pulsar's motion or due to the electrons and magnetic fields that the pulses encounter.

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