Does rotation twist space and time?
While in the well-known Newtonian theory of gravitation it is irrelevant if a body spins or stay at rest, it is not so in the Einsteinian picture. Indeed, the rotation of a body makes a difference in that a new component of its gravitational field with respect to the one due to solely its mass, named as «gravitomagnetic», arises. It perturbs the motion of a satellite orbiting the rotating object in a unique, characteristic way by «dragging» it along with space and time as well: it is the «Lense-Thirring» or «frame-dragging» effect.
Black holes such as Gargantua in the celebrated Interstellar movie do rotate, and their gravitomagnetic field is believed to act as a poweful engine contributing to drive highly energetic jets made of high-speed matter away from their poles.
All this sounds quite exciting, but how could we be sure that things really go as I described? After all, there no such black holes in our astronomical neighbourhood, and observations of distant candidates can provide us only with very indirect information, very often confused by the action of a host of other competing physical effects which usually mask frame-dragging.
Wait! Luckily, our Solar System offers a unique opportunity! Also its planets rotate, so that accurately monitoring the motion of satellites about them can be a good idea! People have already tried around the Earth, but the results are still debated.
Jupiter is the biggest and the fastest spinning planet: next year, a spacraft named Juno will reach it and will be inserted into a highly elliptical orbit about it. Some years ago, for the first time, I proposed to use Juno to test the Lense-Thirring effect: later, other independent teams of astronomers confirmed that my idea was feasible.
What I want to do
So, now I wish to pursue it by publishing papers in international peer-reviewed journals, sharing my ideas among colleagues travelling at international conferences, and making calculations with dedicated softwares. This is why I ask for your support! Thank you!