Since the 1990s, scientists and space program managers have noticed that some spacecraft experience unexpected speed changes during their orbits around the Earth
This inexplicable fluctuation is negligible, and manifests itself either in an increase in speed or in a decrease, but this cannot be predicted using fundamental physics. The anomaly does not happen with every spacecraft, but scientists hoped to get more information about the deflection when the Rosetta spacecraft circled Earth on November 13, 2009, before heading to meet the comet in 2014. To everyone's dismay, however, Rosetta did not sense the anomaly as it circled the planet. although this same spacecraft already experienced an anomaly during its orbital flight in 2005, and did not experience it in 2007.
What happens to gravity remains a mystery, said Trevor Morley, the leading flight dynamics specialist working on the Rosetta program. Some studies are trying to find answers in new interpretations of existing physics. If they succeed, such news will be an absolute breakthrough.
Several ideas have been presented in an attempt to explain the anomaly, but none have yet been able to identify the cause.
Earth through the eyes of the Osiris camera aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. (Photo: ESA)
Ideas range from tidal effects in near-Earth space, atmospheric drag or radiation pressure emitted or reflected by the Earth, to more extreme assumptions such as dark matter, dark energy, or previously unobserved changes in general relativity.
One American team of researchers led by NASA researcher John Anderson is even considering the possibility that the Earth's rotation could distort spacetime - the basic structure of our universe - more than expected, and affect passing spaceships. However, there is no explanation yet as to how this might happen.
Also, no one can explain why some ships are experiencing the anomaly while others are not.
The secret remains a secret!
