# Pioneer Anomaly



## Metryq (Apr 17, 2011)

As seen in the threads *Dark Matter* and *Something From Nothing*, physics sometimes turns up the weirdest and most convoluted explanations for the mundane.

The Pioneer spaceprobes, launched in the early '70s, are now out at the edge of the Solar system. For years scientists have been puzzling over "*the Pioneer anomaly*," the unexpected slowing of the two spacecraft. All kinds of exotic explanations have been suggested, from warping space and slowing clocks to Global Warming and the possibility that it may be Bush's fault. 

Okay, I'm exaggerating on those last two, but a more mundane suggestion—worked out with an old 3D rendering engine known as Phong shading—is awaiting confirmation:

*Pioneer Anomaly Solved By 1970s Computer Graphics Technique*


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## RJM Corbet (Apr 18, 2011)

Would you be able to define the problem in simpler words, please? Sorry, am interested, but unfamiliar with the issue, and because I'm not a mathematician, it's difficult to follow


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## mosaix (Apr 18, 2011)

This was reported in New Scientist, last week.

The nice thing about this is that some scientists have continued to look for a conventional solution instead of inventing something entirely new.


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## RJM Corbet (Apr 18, 2011)

mosaix said:


> This was reported in New Scientist, last week.
> 
> The nice thing about this is that some scientists have continued to look for a conventional solution instead of inventing something entirely new.


 
Would you care to expand? Seriously, Metryq, I'm sure there are several others like me out there, who are interested in physics, and more or less familiar with the concepts of quantum mechanics and so on, but don't get the math, and are not as up to date as you scientific guys are, so wish to learn from you


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## Metryq (Apr 18, 2011)

RJM Corbet, there is a link in the middle of my first post ("*the Pioneer anomaly*") to the Wikipedia article. It gives a concise summation of the whole story, including all the suggested explanations.


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## RJM Corbet (Apr 18, 2011)

Oh, I see, I missed your point entirely. Puzzle solved by drag caused by heat, done and dusted -- no alternative universes, no outside dimensions. Sorry. Spock retires, to cabin, to catch up, before opening his mouth without engaging his brain again ...


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## mosaix (Apr 18, 2011)

RJM Corbet said:


> Would you care to expand?



Not sure how I could say anything more on it really. But I always lean more towards a simple explanation rather than a complex one.

I'm just glad that someone in the scientific community is still looking for simple explanations - there were all sorts of exotic solutions being bandied about for this.


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## Nik (Apr 18, 2011)

IIRC, the issue is not quite dead yet: It seems that the way they've modelled reflections off the antenna etc is only a loose approximation. At least they may get resource to re-work it to higher precision...

FWIW, I was a bit disappointed that the 'anomaly' was not due to planetary rotation causing 'frame dragging' as this would have implied 'new physics'...


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## Metryq (Apr 18, 2011)

Nik said:


> FWIW, I was a bit disappointed that the 'anomaly' was not due to planetary rotation causing 'frame dragging' as this would have implied 'new physics'...



Nah, it's just some little green guy out at the edge of the Solar system with his finger on the scale. 

BEM 1: "Hey, let's turn it around and send it back. That will really freak 'em out!"

BEM 2: "No, they'd know something was fishy then. This way they tie themselves in knots trying to figure it out and sidetrack their physics for decades!"


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## Vertigo (Apr 18, 2011)

Now that is arguably the simplest explanation, Metryq. So Occam's razor proves extraterrestial life does exist


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