The Pioneer Anomaly: A Deviation from Einstein Gravity?

Socrates II — 4/21/2008 3:33:32 PM (archived)

The Pioneer Anomaly: A Deviation from Einstein Gravity?

Written by Ian O'Neill

Both Pioneer probes are approximately 240,000 miles (386,000 km)
closer to the Sun than predicted by calculation. Scientists have been
arguing over the cause of this mysterious force for a decade and
reasons for the Pioneer anomaly range from the bizarre to the sublime.

Is it a simple fuel leak, pushing the probes of course? Is it phantom
dark matter dragging them down? Or do the gravity textbooks need
to be re-written? Unfortunately there's still no one answer, but some
researchers believe there might be a small deviation in the large-
scale space-time Einstein described in his famous theory of general
relativity. See, I knew there would be a simple explanationâ€¦

Full article here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/16/the-pioneer-anomaly-a-deviation-from-einstein-gravity/

The whole thread (21 posts)

The Pioneer Anomaly: A Deviation from Einstein Gravity? - Socrates II - 4/21/2008 3:33:32 PM
- Maybe I'm missing something. - ER - 4/21/2008 6:02:47 PM
  - So far everyone is. That's the point. :-) (n/t) - Bowser - 4/22/2008 3:18:01 AM
    - re: No point. Facts speak for themselves. (n/t) - Marcia - 4/22/2008 5:48:08 AM
  - re: Maybe I'm missing something. - alcaray - 4/21/2008 9:08:06 PM
    - re: Maybe I'm missing something. - Marcia - 4/21/2008 11:59:21 PM
      - re: ... and something to keep in mind. - Marcia - 4/24/2008 2:17:56 AM
        
        re: ... and something to keep in mind. - Marcia - 4/24/2008 2:57:14 AM
      - New Horizons will soon be out there too. (n/t) - alcaray - 4/22/2008 12:25:55 AM
        
        But is the Pluto probe designed for studying the anomaly? - Socrates II - 4/22/2008 1:49:06 PM
        
        Of course not. - alcaray - 4/22/2008 6:18:09 PM
        
        The proposed ASTROD missions - Socrates II - 4/22/2008 8:12:02 PM
        
        I guess I misunderstood you. - alcaray - 4/22/2008 10:10:55 PM
        
        Ayup - Socrates II - 4/23/2008 3:24:24 AM
        
        It's hard to see how revolutionizing our knowledge of how gravity works is going to lead to a return on investment. - ER - 4/22/2008 2:31:26 PM
        
        re: One of Newton's laws. There may be a simple answer to the anomaly. - Marcia - 4/24/2008 1:32:49 AM
        
        I am one of those crazy people... - Socrates II - 4/22/2008 2:53:57 PM
        
        So am I. - ER - 4/22/2008 6:21:44 PM
  - There's a more detailed paper - TB - 4/21/2008 8:42:31 PM
    - Presentation online here - Socrates II - 4/22/2008 4:39:36 PM
      - Speaking of Pioneer... - Socrates II - 4/23/2008 7:11:54 PM

Recent posts

On this day in Space/Science

The whole thread (21 posts)