Friday, April 18, 2008

A "Pioneering" Mystery Solved

Remember the first pioneer crafts launched in 1972 sent to collect data from Jovian space?  Pioneer 10 and its twin, Pioneer 11, have done their work.  During these past decades they blazed a trail to Jupiter and Saturn, being the first craft to enter the asteroid belt.  They were also the first man-made craft designed to leave our solar system.  After leaving Jovian space, they traveled onward well beyond the orbit of Pluto, and eventually fell silent.  Pioneer 11 faded out in 1995 and Pioneer 10 sent us its last clear signal December of 2003.             

NASA's intersteller space mission collected much data, but during the years tracking specialists noticed something odd: neither craft was exactly where it was supposed to be.

After crossing billions of miles in space, they were instead thousands of miles closer to the Sun than expected - not a great deal but significant enough to have people wondering if it was a sign that we needed some unknown "refinement" to the theory of gravity, our bedrock of modern physics.

The latest findings and conclusions by JPL tells us no exotic explanation is in order.  Some of this slowing down was due to uneven emmission of heat radiating from the spacecraft.  So it made sense the craft would not be "on track" all this time. 

Pioneer 10 may sound familiar as it was the craft that carries our "introduction" to any life-forms in the outer regions of space it might encounter on its trek through the galaxy.    

 This is the gold-amodized plaque still aboard Pioneer 10 designed in part by the late Dr. Carl Sagan, depicting a human man and woman, a map of Earth's solar system, and other symbols which would help intelligent beings interpret the message and understand its creators, earthlings.  You might also remember the recording of "Hello" in every known language in the world.  Imagine where this craft might be now ...

We did a great job in constructing the pioneers, which outlasted even the programming language and data formats of their launch time.  Just to give you an idea of how well-made these craft were, Pioneer 10 was expected to last only 21 months!  And here it went on for 30 years!  I like to think that someday when the craft are found, by whatever life form, mankind will have survived as a species and be able to welcome the visitors who will certainly want to visit us. 

Thank you, noble pioneers, for the invaluable knowledge you've given humankind about Jupiter and Saturn, their atmosphere, and that section of our system we once thought so mysterious.  A job well done. 

  

   

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello my star lady. That's my new name for you by the way! lol A job well done Indeed. Thank You for sharing. Love Pam xx

Anonymous said...

I love this kind of stuff. I only hope we carry on advancing like this.
My first thoughts of their not being in the right place would have been solar winds/flares or something...do they even happen? Or maybe a minor collision with something maybe? lol!

This is why I WATCH Star Trek, not write it..haha!

Lv Stevie
xxx

Anonymous said...

Truly marvels in and of themselves... I wish them a continued bon voyage!  

be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

Anonymous said...

Interesting...I have to say though they were really quite off with their prediction of 21 months!!  I would love to meet a visitor from another galaxy but then maybe I just used to watch too much Star Trek when I was young.
xx
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Hi Cathy, I really know in my heart that I shouldn’t bite but you know that is nigh impossible don’t you?
“After crossing billions of miles in space, they were instead thousands of miles closer to the Sun than expected - not a great deal but significant enough to have people wondering if it was a sign that we needed some unknown "refinement" to the theory of gravity, our bedrock of modern physics.
The latest findings and conclusions by JPL tells us no exotic explanation is in order.  Some of this slowing down was due to uneven emission of heat radiating from the spacecraft.  So it made sense the craft would not be "on track" all this time.”

"The theory of gravity, our bedrock of modern physics"? Very questionable and so controversial but I will try to get you up to speed forthwith.

Anonymous said...

Lesson 1
“String theory is a still developing mathematical approach to theoretical physics, whose original building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings. Unlike the point particles in quantum field theories like the standard model of particle physics, strings interact in a way that is almost uniquely specified by mathematical self-consistency, forming an apparently valid quantum theory of gravity. Since its birth as the dual resonance model which described the strongly interacting hadrons as strings, the term string theory has changed to include any of a group of related superstring theories and larger frameworks such as M-theory, which unite them. A shared property of all these theories is the holographic principle”.

“String theorists have not yet completely described these theories, nor have they determined if these theories relate to the physical universe or how. The elegance and flexibility of the approach, however, and a number of qualitative similarities with more traditional physical models, have led many physicists to suspect that such a connection is possible.

In particular, string theory may be a way to "unify" the known natural forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear) by describing them with the same set of equations, as described in the theory of everything. On the other hand, the models have been criticized for their inability, thus far, to provide any experimentally testable predictions”. It stumps Prof Stephen Hawkins and me also.

Anonymous said...

It is universally recognized that out of the four fundamental natural occurring forces, Gravity is by far the weakest, with the other three relatively similar. It is not the bedrock of physics and that is the last key to all those evolutionists that uphold the big bang nature of our universe’s startup.

Until that is proved it is just a theory like any other, not the bedrock of any science.

So await some madcap physicist replying to your blog giving you big licks and pointing out this abomination.

So, if "JPL tells you that no exotic explanation is in order" what chance me? ED

Anonymous said...

Lesson 2
“Like any other quantum theory of gravity, it is widely believed that testing the theory experimentally would be prohibitively expensive, requiring heroic feats of engineering on a solar-system scale. Although string theory like any other scientific theory is falsifiable in principle, critics maintain that it is unfalsifiable for the foreseeable future, and so should not be called science”. That includes me Cathy, so no bedrock of physics there.

“Work on string theory is made interesting because of the mathematics involved, and because of the large number of forms that the theories can take. String theory strongly suggests that space time has eleven dimensions, not the usual three space and one time; but the theory can easily describe universes with four observable space time dimensions too”.

“String theories include higher-dimensional objects than strings, called branes. These are black holes charged with a differential form vector potential which has more than one index, a different type of electricity and magnetism where the fundamental objects are extended. By studying these P-branes and identifying them with D-branes, endpoints for strings, certain types of string theory are shown to be equivalent to certain types of more traditional gauge theory. Research on this equivalence has led to new insights on quantum chromo dynamics, the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force”. (No pun intended I'm sure in the P brane comment lol)

Anonymous said...

Pioneer I and II are one of the marvels of the space age, Cathy, and thank you for reminding us.

Anonymous said...

Pioneer 10/11 is something I am quite impressed with, along with many other people, no doubt.  ~Mary

Anonymous said...

I think the picture on the craft was a wonderful idea but TV itself has made me scared to meet any Aliens out there. (((HUGS))) -Missy

Anonymous said...

I was fascinated reading this entry...Thank you for sharing! (Hugs) Indigo

Anonymous said...

Have I ever told you how much I enjoy the way you open my eyes to the wonders of the universe? I always learn something from you or gain a new appreciate for something that I knew existed but had forgotten. This was absolutely fascinating.--Sheria

Anonymous said...

This was really interesting ~ you teach me something new with every one of your entries ~ Ally x