end of an era: pioneer 10 fades away

[Japher]

That makes sense... I forgot to convert 5.8 billion Km to miles.

[Dauphin]

Even ignoring the NASA emulating ignoring of metric units by Japher, there is a problem with the Pioneers' velocity and distance. They don't come out right when you do the sums. The problem is significant enough to intrigue some physicists.

[Japher]

Even ignoring the NASA emulating ignoring of metric units by Japher

I is a college graduate

[CerberusIV]

Presumably it hasn't travelled in a straight line for the whole distance (as it swings past planets to use their gravity to speed up it must change course). Does this explain some of the distance/time discrepancy?

[Ben Kenobi]

Secondly, you have the distance from Pluto as well.

I've only approximated, some one would have to look to make sure.

How much are we off by BC?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Ming
Does anybody else have a problem with this statement

Nope, all looks in order to me at first inspection...

Anyway, it is the end of an era I suppose when these things start disappearing from the furthest reaches of the solar system. We just don't seem to launch things like this any more...either that or they are much lower profile now.

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, as these probes are slingshot using planets, their path is never linear. Although that probe may be x miles as the crow flies (or as the warbird flies ), but it may have travelled much further in total...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by obiwan18
Secondly, you have the distance from Pluto as well.

I've only approximated, some one would have to look to make sure.

How much are we off by BC?

Pioneer 10 has been off compared to NASA's calculations for over 20 years, even before it reached Pluto, and these calculations have been double checked by independent institutions. The difference is currently on the shy side of half a million kilometres - a massive discrepency. And its not a peculiar problem either. Pioneer 11, Galileo and Ulysses have demonstrated the same behaviour.

[Dauphin]

These potential sources of error have been discounted.

Errors in JPL's orbital determination software
Gravity of the Kuiper belt and gravity from the galaxy
Errors in the planetary ephemeris
Errors in the values of the Earth's orientation, precession, and nutation
Nongravitational effects from solar pressure and attitude control maneuvers
Solar wind and interplanetary medium
Nominal thermal radiation and plutonium half-life
Drifting clocks, general relativity, and the speed of gravity
Hardware problems at the tracking stations

[Unspeakable Horror]

Originally posted by Big Crunch
These potential sources of error have been discounted.

Errors in JPL's orbital determination software
Gravity of the Kuiper belt and gravity from the galaxy
Errors in the planetary ephemeris
Errors in the values of the Earth's orientation, precession, and nutation
Nongravitational effects from solar pressure and attitude control maneuvers
Solar wind and interplanetary medium
Nominal thermal radiation and plutonium half-life
Drifting clocks, general relativity, and the speed of gravity
Hardware problems at the tracking stations

And what is the current theory?

Nice finding by the way

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Carlos113


And what is the current theory?

Gravitational effects are the most likely cause. But there aren't any theories that don't involve new physics. i.e All theories disagree with Einstein and Newton in some way.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
planet x?

There is a rock out there, that I saw on the Tech channel that some are saying it could be Planet X. If I remember correctly it is about one haft of Pluto. Its a long ways from Pluto also.

[Lancer]

Ha! I outlived it.

[Tattila the Hun]

Hardly. When you're but few specs of dust, it still keeps going, somewhere...

[The Mad Monk]

Are the Voyagers also showing this behavior?