The Pioneer Anomaly in the Context of Non-Newtonian Gravity
- Paper number
IAC-05-C1.P.20
- Author
Mr. Michael Kosbow, Aachen University of Technology, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Hans-Joachim Blome, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Studies of radiometric data from the spacecrafts Pioneer 10/11, Galileo and Ulysses have revealed the existence of an anomalous acceleration on all four spacecrafts, inbound to the Sun and with a (constant) magnitude of (8.5 pm 1.3) x 10 −10 m/s 2. The two Pioneer spacecrafts follow approximate opposite hyperbolic trajectories away from the Solar System, while Galileo and Ulysses describe closed orbits Extensive attempts to explain this phenomena as a result of poor accounting of thermal and mechanical effects as well as errors in the tracking algorithms used, have shown to be unsuccessful. There are many attempts to explain the anomaly based on the combination of the extensions to general relativity and the recently discovered accelerated expansion of the universe. The accelerated expansion of the universe implies that on large scales the universe is not dominated by gravitational attraction, but rather by a long-range repulsive force. Whilst this could be explained by general relativity in terms of the Cosmological Constant, it could also indicate new physics beyond general relativity. All unifying theories or quantum gravity theories predict small modifications from general relativity and deviations from the Newtonian inverse square law either in a Yukawa-like form or by adding a repulsive force term which corresponds to a term which is a consequence of the Newtonian limit of Einstein’s field equations of gravitation. In our paper we consider the possible influence of a non-vanishing Cosmological Constant and a Newton-Yukawa potential on a bound heliocentric orbit and the orbit parameters of a spacecraft escaping the solar system with the variation-of-constants method. The effect on the spacecraft trajectories are nearly insignificant. But great strides are being made in observational technology in astronomy and fundamental physics and it appears worthwhile to investigate some of the observational consequences of the influence of cosmological expansion on local systems and the existence of a cosmological constant – especially with respect to a recent proposal “To Explore The Pioneer Anomaly” within the Cosmic Vision Theme of ESA.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-C1.P.20.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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