The effect has been found to be an important factor shaping the orbits of irregular satellites of the planets, trans-Neptunian objects, extrasolar planets, and multiple star systems. It hypothetically promotes black hole mergers. It was first described in 1961 by Mikhail Lidov while analyzing the orbits of artificial and natural satellites of planets. In 1962, Yoshihide Kozai published this same result in application to the orbits of asteroids perturbed by Jupiter. The citations of the initial papers by Kozai and Lidov have risen sharply in the 21st century. As of 2017, the mechanism is among the most studied astrophysical phenomena.