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NASA Baffled by Unexplained Force Acting on Space Probes
Space.com ^ | 2/29/08 | Charles Q. Choi

Posted on 02/29/2008 5:48:51 PM PST by NormsRevenge

Mysteriously, five spacecraft that flew past the Earth have each displayed unexpected anomalies in their motions.

These newfound enigmas join the so-called "Pioneer anomaly" as hints that unexplained forces may appear to act on spacecraft.

A decade ago, after rigorous analyses, anomalies were seen with the identical Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft as they hurtled out of the solar system. Both seemed to experience a tiny but unexplained constant acceleration toward the sun.

A host of explanations have been bandied about for the Pioneer anomaly. At times these are rooted in conventional science — perhaps leaks from the spacecraft have affected their trajectories. At times these are rooted in more speculative physics — maybe the law of gravity itself needs to be modified.

Now Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer John Anderson and his colleagues — who originally helped uncover the Pioneer anomaly — have discovered that five spacecraft each raced either a tiny bit faster or slower than expected when they flew past the Earth en route to other parts of the solar system.

'Humble and perplexed'

The researchers looked at six deep-space probes — Galileo I and II to Jupiter, the NEAR mission to the asteroid Eros, the Rosetta probe to a comet, Cassini to Saturn, and the MESSENGER craft to Mercury. Each spacecraft flew past the our planet to either gain or lose orbital energy in their quests to reach their eventual targets.

In five of the six flybys, the scientists have confirmed anomalies.

"I am feeling both humble and perplexed by this," said Anderson, who is now working as a retiree. "There is something very strange going on with spacecraft motions. We have no convincing explanation for either the Pioneer anomaly or the flyby anomaly."

In the one probe the researchers did not confirm a noticeable anomaly with, MESSENGER, the spacecraft approached the Earth at about latitude 31 degrees north and receded from the Earth at about latitude 32 degrees south. "This near-perfect symmetry about the equator seemed to result in a very small velocity change, in contrast to the five other flybys," Anderson explained — so small no anomaly could be confirmed.

The five other flybys involved flights whose incoming and outgoing trajectories were asymmetrical with each other in terms of their orientation with Earth's equator.

For instance, the NEAR mission approached Earth at about latitude 20 south and receded from the planet at about latitude 72 south. The spacecraft then seemed to fly 13 millimeters per second faster than expected. While this is just one-millionth of that probe's total velocity, the precision of the velocity measurements was 0.1 millimeters per second, carried out as they were using radio waves bounced off the craft. This suggests the anomaly seen is real — and one needing an explanation.

The fact this effect seems most evident with flybys most asymmetrical with respect to Earth's equator "suggests that the anomaly is related to Earth's rotation," Anderson said.

As to whether these new anomalies are linked with the Pioneer anomaly, "I would be very surprised if we have discovered two independent spacecraft anomalies," Anderson told SPACE.com. "I suspect they are connected, but I really do not know."

Unbound idea

These anomalies might be effects we see with an object possessing a spacecraft's mass, between 660 and 2,200 lbs. (300 and 1,000 kg), Anderson speculated.

"Another thing in common between the Pioneer and these flybys is what you would call an unbound orbit around a central body," Anderson said. "For instance, the Pioneers are flying out of the solar system — they're not bound to their central body, the sun. For the other flybys, the Earth is the central body. These kinds of orbits just don't occur very often in nature — it could be when you get into an unbound orbit around a central body, something goes on that's not in our standard models."

The researchers are now collaborating with German colleagues to search for possible anomalies in the Rosetta probe's second flyby of the Earth on November 13.

"We should continue to monitor spacecraft during Earth flybys. We should look carefully at newly recovered Pioneer data for more evidence of the Pioneer anomaly," Anderson added. "We should think about launching a dedicated mission on an escape trajectory from the solar system, just to look for anomalies in its motion."

Montana State University physicist Ronald Hellings, who did not participate in this study, said, "There's definitely something going on. Whether that's because of new physics or some problem with the model we have is yet to be worked out, as far as I know. A lot of people are trying to look into this."

Anderson and his colleagues will detail their latest findings in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.


TOPICS: Government; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: anomalies; baffled; nasa; pioneeranomaly; spaceprobes; unexplained
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To: TCats
There's a cloaked ship in our solar system. These perturbations are the result of the smaller object being interfered with by the larger ship mass as it moves.

It is waiting pick up Dennis Kucinich after the elections are over.
21 posted on 02/29/2008 6:13:33 PM PST by Lucky Dog
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To: NormsRevenge

>> “For instance, the Pioneers are flying out of the solar system — they’re not bound to their central body, the sun. “

Of course, it needs to be included in the set of possibilities that the probes are not experiencing irregular change in relative velocity.


22 posted on 02/29/2008 6:23:17 PM PST by Gene Eric
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To: AndrewC; commonguymd; Eaker; Fractal Trader; Fred Nerks; jacquej; jeddavis; John123; Kevmo; ...
Anomalies with the orbits of deep space probes... PING!

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

23 posted on 02/29/2008 6:26:11 PM PST by Swordmaker (We can fix this, but you're gonna need a butter knife, a roll of duct tape, and a car battery.)
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To: BGHater
Could be lovebugs?

Wow, love hurts!

24 posted on 02/29/2008 6:27:08 PM PST by Jeff F
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To: NormsRevenge

It’s Planet X.


25 posted on 02/29/2008 6:28:02 PM PST by bmwcyle (I am the watchman on the tower sounding the alarm.)
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To: Lucky Dog
the spacecraft approached the Earth at about latitude 31 degrees north and receded from the Earth at about latitude 32 degrees south

Maybe this guy had something to do with it .....

26 posted on 02/29/2008 6:30:38 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Eye On The Left
Maybe NASA should spend less time promoting crackpot Global Warming theories and more time exploring space.
27 posted on 02/29/2008 6:31:05 PM PST by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: NormsRevenge

A disturbance in the force?


28 posted on 02/29/2008 6:34:29 PM PST by csvset
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To: Eastbound
I once read somewhere that the forces acting on the spacecrafts might be due to the fact that they are metal objects passing through a magnetic field (the Sun's) and so, through 'induction', a force is exerted onto them. But I don't think they mention this in the article below.

[Induction: "The generation of an electromotive force in a closed circuit by a varying magnetic flux through the circuit."]

The Problem with Gravity: New Mission Would Probe Strange Puzzle

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 18 October 2004

Imagine the weight of a nagging suspicion that what held your world together, a constant and consistent presence you had come to understand and rely on, wasn't what it seemed. That's how scientists feel when they ponder gravity these days. For more than three centuries, the basics of gravity were pretty well understood. Newton described the force as depending on an object's mass. Though it extends infinitely, gravity weakens with distance (specifically, by the inverse square of the distance). Einstein built on these givens in developing his theory of relativity. Then more than a decade ago a researcher noticed something funny about two Pioneer spacecraft that were streaming toward the edge of the solar system. They weren't where they should have been.

Something was holding the probes back, according to calculations of their paths, speed and how the gravity of all the objects in the solar system -- and even a tiny push provided by sunlight -- ought to act on them.

Now scientists have proposed a new mission to figure out what's up with gravity.

Staggering possibilities

Pioneer 10 and 11 launched in 1972 and 1973. Today each is several billion miles away, heading in opposite directions out of the solar system.

The discrepancy caused by the anomaly amounts to about 248,500 miles (400,000 kilometers), or roughly the distance between Earth and the Moon. That's how much farther the probes should have traveled in their 34 years, if our understanding of gravity is correct. (The distance figure is an oversimplification of the actual measurements, but more on that in a moment.)

Scientists are quick to suggest the Pioneer anomaly, as they call it, is probably caused by the space probes themselves, perhaps emitting heat or gas. But the possibilities have been tested and modeled and penciled out, and so far they don't add up.

Which leaves open staggering possibilities that would force wholesale reprinting of all physics books:

Invisible dark matter is tugging at the probes

Other dimensions create small forces we don't understand

Gravity works differently than we think

lot's more at:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_041018.html

29 posted on 02/29/2008 6:41:57 PM PST by Eye On The Left
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To: NormsRevenge

Maybe it is the Lens Thirring effect:

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/robsona/lense-thirring%20effect.htm


30 posted on 02/29/2008 6:48:25 PM PST by Barry Goldwater ("Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!")
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To: BenLurkin

Shouldn’t make a difference what the weight is.

A hammer and a feather on the moon should fall at exactly the same rate.

In fact, I’ve looked closely at some of the vids of the moon landings and watched the dust fall.
The dust falls exactly as it should in an airless environment, thus debunking the “We never went to the moon” loonies.


31 posted on 02/29/2008 6:49:57 PM PST by djf (I think McCain deserves a chance. After all, he is on R side!)
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To: Eye On The Left

I sincerely believe it is “anti-gravity”. Years ago I knew a geophysicist that was doing gravity research for the Air Force. Even missles from an airplane are corrected for regional gravity effects. Things never quite worked out, and there were suspicions of a small repulsive gravity force. Although that was years ago and haven’t heard anything else regarding it, so perhaps it was a wild goose chase.


32 posted on 02/29/2008 6:56:45 PM PST by geopyg (Don't wish for peace, pray for Victory.)
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To: Brett66; NormsRevenge

Forbush decrease effect? Although typically thought of as an indication of future solar activity, the Sun’s Great Conveyor Belt has slowed to a record-low crawl that’s considered “off the bottom of the charts.” A slow belt means lower solar activity. Less plasma circulation = less solar flares and radiation storms = less magnetic force fields and increased radiation acting upon spacecraft. It would be interesting to see the solar activity at the time of all referenced flybys.


33 posted on 02/29/2008 6:59:14 PM PST by callisto (CONGRESS.SYS corrupted...Re-boot Washington DC (Y/N)?)
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To: NormsRevenge

“While this is just one-millionth of that probe’s total velocity, the precision of the velocity measurements was 0.1 millimeters per second.....”

The good folks that test my software are like this bunch. All I can say is “Perfect is the enemy of good”.


34 posted on 02/29/2008 7:00:23 PM PST by mad puppy (Never have I felt so politically radical and I swear I didn't move an inch.)
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To: Eye On The Left
Thanks for the link!

Here's the full story on the amazing mine shaft experiments:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hollow/palmer.htm

35 posted on 02/29/2008 7:01:48 PM PST by Eastbound
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To: djf
Shouldn’t make a difference what the weight is.

A hammer and a feather on the moon should fall at exactly the same rate.

Correct, but a higher mass object would have a greater inertia.

"inertial mass" vs "gravitational mass".

36 posted on 02/29/2008 7:06:35 PM PST by Eye On The Left
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To: NormsRevenge

We don’t understand gravity, in a perfect manner. Hell, I’m sitting on a chair held up by spinning molecules and if the gravity field were any different by the slightest degree, I’d be flattened on the floor (or worse) or on the ceiling looking down....


37 posted on 02/29/2008 7:10:42 PM PST by onyx eyes (me and us, together)
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To: NormsRevenge

Did Karl Rove make an upgrade to his weather machine?


38 posted on 02/29/2008 7:11:15 PM PST by fso301
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To: BenLurkin

Weight is the least of my worries.

We stamped our Earth address on Pioneer. What if an alien drops in and expects a free meal, a free room and a free education? Wait...we already have aliens that expect that.

Never mind...


39 posted on 02/29/2008 7:12:21 PM PST by sergeantdave (Governments hate armed citizens more than armed criminals)
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To: geopyg
I sincerely believe it is “anti-gravity”. Years ago I knew a geophysicist that was doing gravity research for the Air Force. Even missles from an airplane are corrected for regional gravity effects. Things never quite worked out, and there were suspicions of a small repulsive gravity force. Although that was years ago and haven’t heard anything else regarding it, so perhaps it was a wild goose chase.

Sounds like you're describing "dark energy". But I don't think it's suppose to have much of an effect on minor scales like the solar system. It's thought to kick in at cosmic expansion (big Bang) scales.

40 posted on 02/29/2008 7:17:29 PM PST by Eye On The Left
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