They said their findings are the first to directly measure and prove an important aspect of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: that a rotating body warps and twists the "fabric" that combines the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time.
They reported their research in the current issue of the journal Nature.
"As the Earth turns, it is actually twisting space-time with it. Near Earth, the twisting is greater," said Dr Michael Salamon, a physicist at NASA in Washington.
"This twisting of space-time, which is also referred to as frame-dragging, has never been directly observed before," Salamon said.
"This is the first real, solid, direct evidence we have for the twisting of space-time caused by the spinning of a rotating body."
Associate Professor Erricos Pavlis of the Joint Center for Earth System Technology at NASA and the University of Maryland and colleagues observed two satellites orbiting the Earth and found that they did shift as the planet pulled on space.
"We measured the distance from the Earth to the satellite with the accuracy of millimeters," Pavlis said.
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