Posted on 09/19/2010 9:51:52 PM PDT by Nachum
NASA scientists say they may have discovered a new force of nature, after research showed two of their deep space probes were being inexplicably pulled off course.
Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which have been in space for over 40 years, are being steadily pulled towards the sun by an unknown power, according to London’s Telegraph newspaper
The scientists said it could not be gravity or solar radiation, as they decreased over distance.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ninemsn.com.au ...
Use the Force, Luke!
Well that is a pretty worthless article.
There was absolutely no information in it.
I think they’re being sucked back by the imploding black-hole that is Obama’s popularity....
What is NASA doing spending time on that when their job is Muslim outreach?
That has become the standard of MSM reporting these last few years.
“What is NASA doing spending time on that when their job is Muslim outreach?”
Good point! What are they thinking?
How much do we now need to study this new force?
Scientists tracking the distant probe (now some 11 billion kilometres from Earth), say that the probe’s speed, presently 43,400km/h, is being reduced by the force by almost 10km/h per century. Not much but entirely noticeable and worthy enough that scientists, like Dr Duncan Steel of Salford University, is speculating this cosmic tug could question whether we know enough about gravity, the universe and everything. [Telegraph]
Bush’s fault! If only he had signed the Kyoto protocols...
Uhhhhh, wouldn't solar radiation be trying to speed it up and wouldn't gravity be trying to slow it down?
Maybe the solar radiation (outward force) is less than expected at that distance and therefore gravity (inward force) is having a greater effect?
It's called "Chuck Norris."
IIRC, the original problem was that there were 2 probes, and that one of them showed a slowing of speed. Then, later, the second one showed some slowing.
There are about 20 billion ‘things’ in space around these probes that could affect their speed.
One micro-asteroid hitting the probe could cause a change in speed. A change in the density of background hydrogen could cause it. Gravitational influences from objects we can’t even see, might cause it.
Saying the Sun has some ‘other’ kind of ‘force’ that is pulling these probes ‘backward’, seems almost ludicrous.
More likely is that it is something else, and we don’t have the equipment on board the probe that would sense ‘what’ and ‘where’ the something else is.
From comments on Gizmodo:
http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/anomalous/index.html
“Published: 12:01AM GMT 10 Feb 2002”
“This article is from 2002. In the 8 years since this article was first published, scientists have discovered that Pioneer is colliding with space dust in the Kuiper belt, which slows it down.”
http://gizmodo.com/5642007/a-mysterious-force-is-pulling-pioneer-10-back-toward-the-sun
See #15.
Yeah, they should be looking for more pet rocks for Mecca.
bflr
Actually, the answer is that these probes are far enough away from our Sun that they have entered an area of space that is less dense. Their speed has not changed, yet the instruments relay back to us a difference, because the instruments are not designed to adjust to a difference in the ‘density’ of ‘space’. The noted ‘change’ then is interpreted as a slowing of ‘speed’.
Never mind that. Where is the planet with the green skin Orion girls?
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