Mysterious Force Holds Back NASA Probe In Deep Space

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-10-2002 | Robert Matthews

[Pistolshot]

"Very funny, Scotty. Now turn the tractor beam OFF."My nominee for quote of the week.

[Squantos]

cosmology ?????? .........Avon and Mark Kay aware of this ?

serious side, very kewl read. I wonder if Art Bells great scientific minds are on this yet ?

Stay Safe !

[Rebelbase]

Correction that is "Veeja".

[Glick & Burnett live on.]

Do you think the "gold plated aluminum" pressing of a man and woman "done to scale" has a woman with Hillary's ass?

Maybe it is just some Senator trying to force them to come back for an upkeep or refurbishment at one of their local constituent run businesses?

[vannrox]

This is a serious and/or critical discovery. It would help us understand the laws of space/time and the effects that they have when the interact outide of certain gravitational and speed effects. This is very... very... very... interesting.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Sorry strela I just realized I was logged on under my wife's screename; "glick & burnett live on.".

[Calvin Locke]

...drag due to interstellar gas...

My initial thought too. Perhaps related to the same force that initiates/starts up/creates comets as well?

[Free the USA]

bump

[mrsmith]

"drag due to interstellar gas"
Impact and accretion of cosmic debris would about fit their measurements IMHO.

"Look here brother-who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now is that a real space probe or is that a Sears space probe?"

[Pistias]

Yeah, Yoda, that's hilarious. Will you leave the dang probes alone now?

[Thinkin' Gal]

Dr Philip Laing, a member of the research team tracking the craft, said: "We have examined every mechanism and theory we can think of and so far nothing works.

"If the effect is real, it will have a big impact on cosmology and spacecraft navigation," said Dr Laing, of the Aerospace Corporation of California.

Looks like another round of Trolling for Dollars.

[mad_as_he$$]

lol

[Brian Kopp DPM]

[Ragdaltx]

This is obviously due to cosmic warming.

[strela]

Replying to "Glick & Burnett ..." was an interesting experience as well. For some reason, I had to type in the ampersand manually to get it to work.

[rwfromkansas]

Plus, call me nuts, but I think the scientists would have thought of that....I highly doubt some Freeper speculation will arrive at a possibility they have not thought of....

[Brian Kopp DPM]

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I believe this effect can be blamed on Enron!

[Don Joe]

Maybe not gas or dust, but, there are only two (well, 2.5) things that would meet the known facts (i.e., apparent immunity to the inverse square law). The first would be in effect the opposite of a "force", i.e., a resistance (such as gas or dust). Now, a resistance can be created, I believe, by a force, i.e., magnetic braking and so forth. Whether or not that's likely I cannot speculate.

The other thing (or thing and a half) would not really violate the inverse square law, but only seem to violate it. That thing would be an attractive (or repulsive, hence the "and a half" literary vehicle :)) force with a source located so far away as to make the force gradient so gradual as to be below any threshold of measurement. (At close range, the gradient is very steep, at long range, it becomes increasingly consistent.)

So, perhaps there's a large, (perhaps dark) object located somewhere far to the other side of the Sun from the probe, exerting a slight pull, apparently constant due to the great distance from the probe.

However, if the effect is seen on two probes that are aimed in different directions relative to the Sun, then it would shoot that theory down.

Maybe it's just the aether wind, flowing towards the Sun. :)