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Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that a rotating mass like the Earth pulls space and time in a circular motion. This phenomenon is known as the pulling frame or the Lense-Thirring effect, after the two scientists who developed it back in 1918. The pulling frame is more important with large populations and fast rotation, so we have seen it around supermassive black holes.
Measuring how much the Earth rotates during its rotation has been difficult because our pale blue blob of a planet is millions of times lighter than a typical black hole and rotates very slowly.
But now, a team of astronomers led by Ignazio Ciufolini, a scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics in China, reports the most accurate measurement of the terrestrial Lense-Thirring effect to date. Their work brings our uncertainty down from a few fractions to just 0.2 percent. And they did it with a satellite that looks like a cross between a golf ball and a disco globe.
