From CNET: Using a supercomputer and some custom-built code, an international team of researchers has created the "most detailed" simulation of a black hole proving a long-standing theory that has puzzled astrophysicists for 45 years.
The theory, first published in 1975, posited that the inner-most region of a spinning black hole would eventually align with the hole's equatorial plane. While that may seem somewhat confusing and inconsequential, how this region is warped by the black hole can have huge effects on entire galaxies.
The new research, published Wednesday in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, details a simulated solution to the theory -- known as the Bardeen-Petterson effect -- and solves a problem co-lead author Sasha Tchekhovskoy says has "haunted the astrophysics community for more than four decades."
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