Re: Pioneer Anomoly


"John C. Polasek" <jpolasek@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:oe58b198em8sg8bflftva1ner1rh9kpk23@xxxxxxxxxx
> Thanks for bringing it to my attention, George. I accidentally
> referenced paper #9, but it should be OK now. Paper #4 has to do with
> Pioneer 10.

OK, I have it now. There are some obvious problems
without getting into the detail yet. The first you
point out yourself: the effect of a large distant
mass would apply to all the bodies in the solar
system hence we would not detect anything. In fact
this is currently happening both because the Milky
Way galaxy is bound in the Local Group. You might
also find it interesting to look up the "Great
Attractor":

http://cow.physics.wisc.edu/~ogelman/guide/gr8a/

The second problem is that both Pioneer 10 and 11
are attracted towards the Sun, but they are on
opposite sides of the Solar System. Your large mass
would need to be in two places at once.

> Incidentally I emailed John Anderson to take a look, but he did not
> respond.

The first point above is of course basic Newtonian
physics so failing to appreciate that really kills
your credibility. You can hardly expect anyone to
take you seriously.

The second point is made in their published paper so
it looks as though you haven't even bothered to study
it before leaping in. There's a lot in the document
and sometimes these points only get a brief mention.

best regards
George





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