Astronomers discovered a star that is dragging space-time around with it, proving that Einstein was right again.
Artist’s depiction of a neutron star orbiting a rapidly-spinning white dwarf. The white dwarf’s spin drags the very fabric of space-time around with it, causing the orbit to tumble in space. Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence/Swinburne University of Technology
Einstein predicted that the gravity of massive objects could warp spacetime. Now, astronomers tracking a quirky pair of stars using the Parkes radio telescope, have proven him right again.
They observed white dwarf-pulsar binary system PSR J1141-6545, about 1.27 times the mass of the sun, located 10,000 to 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Musca (the fly), which is near the famous Southern Cross constellation.
The white dwarf’s rapid rotation drags space-time around it, causing the entire orbit to tumble in space.
The white dwarf-pulsar binary system PSR J1141-6545. The pulsar orbits its white dwarf companion every 4.8 hours. Credit Mark Myers/ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
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