Pioneer Anomaly Explained

mathman

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/a...ampaign=120612

I believe this settles it.

berkeman

From near the end of the long article:

We also calculated the thermal recoil force on the spacecraft using just the Doppler data, by computing the force needed to match the probes’ trajectories. When we compared this independent estimate with the one derived from the spacecraft model, we found that the two values matched within 20 percent. Once uncertainties are taken into account, there is no statistically significant difference. Three decades after its discovery, we can now say there is no exotic cause for the Pioneer anomaly: The puzzling deceleration was produced by the asymmetric radiation of waste heat created onboard the spacecraft.

Drakkith

Excellent!

Old Smuggler

No mention was made of the criticism from Anderson & Morris; see
J.D. Anderson and J.R. Morris, PRD 85, 0840817 (2012). A & M plotted
the alleged "decay" of the anomaly as a function of the radius R from the sun
and found that it goes almost exactly as 1/R^2. This behaviour makes it likely
that the alleged decay is only an artefact due to a mismodelling of the solar
radiation pressure on the spacecraft.

With the "decay" of the anomaly removed, the claim that the thermal model agrees
with the Doppler data to within 20% would hardly be valid. So I think that before
they have explicitly refuted the criticism from Anderson & Morris, it would be
unwise to draw any firm conclusions regarding the status of the anomaly.

Enthalpy

I'm extremely skeptical about this "explanation" since it was one of the first dismissed by the same authors in their original paper.

Among the many dozens of explanations refuted then, thermal recoil was one of the simplest and the effect has been checked by so many people.

Drakkith

Quote by Enthalpy

I'm extremely skeptical about this "explanation" since it was one of the first dismissed by the same authors in their original paper.

Among the many dozens of explanations refuted then, thermal recoil was one of the simplest and the effect has been checked by so many people.

But not to the extent that this team did.

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mathman Recognitions: Science Advisor	Pioneer Anomaly Explained http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/a...ampaign=120612 I believe this settles it.

Enthalpy	I'm extremely skeptical about this "explanation" since it was one of the first dismissed by the same authors in their original paper. Among the many dozens of explanations refuted then, thermal recoil was one of the simplest and the effect has been checked by so many people.

Drakkith Recognitions: Gold Member	Excellent!