Lorenzo Iorio of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Italy) showed that the anomalous deceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft cannot be explained by the influence of gravitational force, since its action would certainly be reflected on the satellites of Neptune and would have been recorded long ago
The devices "Pioneer-10" and "Pioneer-11" became, we recall, one of the first objects of artificial origin to leave the solar system. Measurements have shown that both probes are affected by a force of unknown origin, which imparts to them an acceleration a = (8.74 ± 1.33) • 10 -10 m / s 2 directed towards the Sun. Interest in the effect was fueled by the fact that the modulus of acceleration is approximately equal to the product of the speed of light and the Hubble constant; many saw this as a manifestation of unknown physical laws.
One of the most popular hypotheses connects the appearance of the "Pioneers" anomaly with some changes in the traditional laws of gravity. Obviously, in this case, the parameters of motion should change not only in spacecraft, and therefore scientists have repeatedly tried to detect "strange" effects when analyzing the movement of various celestial bodies located on the border of the Solar System.
In his work, Mr. Iorio examined the orbital characteristics of three satellites of Neptune: Triton, Nereid and Proteus. It is worth noting that at the beginning of this year, Robert Jacobson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA) published updated data on the orbits of these satellites in The Astronomical Journal.
The results of both analytical and numerical calculations by Lorenzo Iorio indicate that the action of the force slowing down the movement of the "Pioneers" on the satellites of Neptune would cause such changes in their orbits, which, if they were accumulated over several years, would have been necessarily discovered by specialists.
A preprint of the scientist's article can be downloaded from the arXiv website.
Let me remind you that Pioneer-10 was launched on March 3, 1972 and passed near Jupiter along a flyby trajectory on December 4, 1973 at a distance of 132,000 km, transmitting the best images of the planet for that time to Earth. He continued to continuously transmit information until it left the solar system. March 30, 1996, at a distance of more than 66 AU. from the Sun, he "fell silent". After 30 years, a new signal was received. NASA's call has successfully covered 12 billion km of space and returned to Earth. Scientists sent a message using a radio telescope from the desert east of Los Angeles. A radio telescope in Spain received a response 22 hours and 6 minutes later. According to Larry Lesher, project manager, the signal was loud and clear.
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In addition to purely scientific and engineering interest for terrestrial researchers, the flight of the Pioneer-10 also fulfills a cultural mission. The fact is that there is a gold plate on board the station with a message to other civilizations. The plate is engraved with the coordinates of the Earth and images of its inhabitants - men and women. Also in mathematical symbols on the plate, the Pythagorean theorem is fixed. Scientists assume that any alien civilization in its development will inevitably face the need to prove this theorem. So the language of geometry seems to be the fundamental language for communication between alien civilizations. If such exist, of course.
