Finding the Source of the Pioneer Spacecraft Deceleration Anomaly

[gary]

An article by Viktor Toth and Slava Turyshev that appears in the December 2012 issue
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum
Magazine entitled "Finding the Source of the Pioneer Anomaly" also forms
the magazine's cover story.

By the time Pioneer 10 and 11 passed beyond Jupiter and Saturn, their navigators began
to notice that both spacecraft were slowing down more than predicted by a minuscule
amount, a deceleration equivalent to one ten-billionth of the acceleration of gravity
on Earth.

Hundreds of papers were written to try and explain the anomaly. Was it due to some
new physics or was the explanation more mundane, perhaps something to do with
the mechanics of the spacecraft themselves? Nothing seemed to quite add up.

Now the authors believe they have found the answer.

Story available online here -
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/a...ioneer-anomaly

[pluto (Hugh)]

Good to see, I've been looking forward to this being explained for ages

That article was way too long so for those that are already familiar with the Pioneer spacecraft and the anomaly I'll just paste here the one paragraph from it that presents their conclusion:

"The team found that a good half of the force came from heat from the RTGs, which bounced off the back of the spacecraft antenna. The other half came from electrical heat from circuitry in the heart of the spacecraft. Most of that heat was radiated through louvers at the back of the probes, which weren’t as well insulated as the rest of their bodies, further contributing to the deceleration."

[sjastro]

An interesting read Gary.

It must be disappointing for the Electric Universe cranks, the Newton is wrong brigade and host of other pseudo and anti science supporters who used the Pioneer anomaly as "proof" that mainstream science is wrong and their respective ideas are correct.

The comments section is a riot.

Regards

Steven

[Rob_K]

Originally Posted by sjastro

The comments section is a riot.

Why did I have to read through all the drivel to get to the point of the comments? Why can't the comments be summarised and put at the top? Next time I'm going to Twitter for the comments (or Little Golden Books)...

Cheers -