The Pioneer Anomaly |
The Pioneer Anomaly |
Aug 16 2005, 04:27 PM
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#1
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly_faq.html
The planetary society may be checking it out... QUOTE The Planetary Society has committed to raise the funds to preserve the priceless Pioneer data from destruction.
After years of analysis, but without a final conclusion, NASA, astonishingly, gave up trying to solve the "Pioneer Anomaly" and provided no funds to analyze the data. The Pioneer data exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes, which can only be read on "antique" outdated computers. The agency is going to scrap, literally demolish, the only computers able to access and process that data in the next few months! |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Aug 18 2005, 06:59 AM
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#2
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Guests |
As far as I understand from readings in the press, the Pioneer probes (ant others) would slow down slighty more than expected from only the Sun gravity. This led to some interesting but far reached speculations.
Some asked if the gravity law was not exactly 1/R2. The most consistent speculation is that, like the galaxy shows an excess (sometimes ten times) of invisible mass, called dark matter, the solar system may have some too (although much less, a fraction of a %). From close to the Sun, we feel only the Sun's attraction, but further in space we feel the Sun's more the dark matter's attraction. This could be explained if the dark matter is made of low energy subatomic particles; many would orbit the galaxy, with speeds in the 200km/s range. Some would orbit the Sun with still smaller speeds in the km/s range. But the measurement of the anomaly is based on many far-reached and difficult estimates, such as the toss of sun's light on the space probe, or gaz leak from the reservoirs. A slight error or false assumption, and the result would be very different. This is why the Pioneer anomaly did not upset the science community. A precise measurement of this anomaly would perhaps do. |
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Aug 26 2005, 09:08 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 624 Joined: 10-August 05 Member No.: 460 |
QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Aug 17 2005, 11:59 PM) As far as I understand from readings in the press, the Pioneer probes (ant others) would slow down slighty more than expected from only the Sun gravity. This led to some interesting but far reached speculations. ... But the measurement of the anomaly is based on many far-reached and difficult estimates, such as the toss of sun's light on the space probe, or gaz leak from the reservoirs. A slight error or false assumption, and the result would be very different. This is why the Pioneer anomaly did not upset the science community. A precise measurement of this anomaly would perhaps do. Painstaking and careful analysis is a more exacting description. http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Turys...S/0/1/0/all/0/1 http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0104064 http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9906112 Anderson, Nieto & Turyshev's paper- rebuttal - papers with the astrophysical community spans more than a decade now, and signatures of the anomalies have been found everywhere they have found the time and money to look for them. The community should be giving this type of research highest priority - Nowhere is it written in stone gravity behaves exactly as was predicted and observed a more than a century ago. If the observational data indicates otherwise, why are we so certain the status que is the status correct? |
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Aug 26 2005, 10:42 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 235 Joined: 2-August 05 Member No.: 451 |
QUOTE (The Messenger @ Aug 26 2005, 04:08 PM) The community should be giving this type of research highest priority The highest priority? I think finding all substantial Earth Crossing asteroids would be more important. Basic exploration of the Solar System should be more important. Looking for extra-solar planets should be more important. Galactic census missions should be more important. Studies of Sgr A* and the things orbiting it should be more important. Studies of distant Type 1a Supernova should be more important. etc. The ESA has considered launching a probe specifically to measure this effect with greater precision, but it didn't get funded. Perhaps you could tell us how you would probe this phenomenon, and what the various outcomes would tell us? Then we can talk about priorities. |
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