"Measuring the Spin of a Supermassive Black Hole Using Wobbling Stellar Material"
Astronomers have developed a new method to measure the spin of a supermassive black hole by tracking the wobbling aftermath of a tidal disruption event. By observing the pattern of X-ray flashes emitted from the accretion disk of a nearby black hole, the team determined that the black hole was spinning at less than 25 percent the speed of light. This groundbreaking approach could be used to gauge the spins of hundreds of black holes in the local universe, shedding light on their evolution over time.