Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square


Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Einstein Wrong About Gravity? JPL's Anderson uncovers a 24 year mystery John Anderson is a physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For the past 24 years he has been collecting data on the first two Pioneer satellites, and what he found is something rather astonishing: Rather than traveling at a constant velocity of more than 25,000 mph toward the edge of the solar system, Pioneers 10 and 11 were inexplicably slowing down. Even factoring in the gravitational pull of the sun and its other planets couldn't explain what he was seeing. How could that be? At first, Anderson figured there must be a simple explanation. Maybe there was a malfunction on board the spacecraft. Maybe his calculations were wrong. Shy, bookish and soft-spoken, Anderson was not the type to call a news conference to announce that two U.S. spacecraft appeared to be disobeying the physical laws of the universe. 'I assumed something was going on that I didn't understand,' said Anderson, now 70. 'So I just kept at it.' For years. What did he discover? The Pioneer Anomaly. Pioneer, it seems, was slowing down to the point where it was a quarter of a million miles slower than it should be. Planets and other sources of gravity were factored in, but scientists were stumped. The explanations? Either dark matter is slowing the spacecraft down, or we are wrong about gravity. The European Space Agency plans a mission to discover the reason for the anamoly in 2015. Great article. posted by Shaun Kenney \| 12/28/2004 06:01:00 PM \| 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment Home
	RedStormPAC $ JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General? 1) John Brownlee 2) Ken Cuccinelli View Results About ShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia. Contact E-mail RSS/Atom Feed The Jeffersoniad Archives March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 April 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009