precession

This drag effect is an example of Lense-Thirring precession, a longstanding theory that describes the ways in which extremely strong gravitational fields, such as those generated by a black hole, can pull on the surrounding space and time.

For the past five years, Pasham has looked for tidal disruption events that are bright enough, and near enough, to quickly follow up and track for signs of Lense-Thirring precession.

"The key was to catch this early on because this precession, or wobble, should only be present early on. Any later, and the disk would not wobble anymore."

The researchers took this pattern of wobbling and worked it into the original theory for Lense-Thirring precession.

This result is called "neural phase precession."