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yesterday

Astronomers Report First Black Hole Frame-Dragging Signal in Tidal Disruption Event

Researchers model a synchronized 20-day wobble in X-ray plus radio signals from a tidal disruption event as disk–jet coprecession driven by frame-dragging.

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Overview

  • AT2020afhd, a star-shredding outburst near a supermassive black hole, showed the debris disk and a relativistic jet moving in step with a 20-day cycle across both wavelengths.
  • The team combined Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory X-ray data with Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio measurements to track the coherent wobble.
  • The behavior matches Lense–Thirring precession predicted by general relativity, indicating spacetime twisting caused by a rapidly spinning black hole.
  • Co-author Cosimo Inserra described the observation as the most compelling evidence yet of frame-dragging near a supermassive black hole.
  • The peer-reviewed study appears in Science Advances as “Detection of disk-jet coprecession in a tidal disruption event” (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ady9068).