# Pioneer anomaly solved? Yay for computer graphics! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 31, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672 "2011-03-31T19:38:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/1 "2011-03-31T19:38:29Z")
[http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26589/](http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26589/) Better modeling of how infrared radiation reflects off the different pieces of the spacecraft suggests that more heat from the power plant is bouncing off the back of the antenna dish than originally thought. That extra radiation is aimed away from Earth and is slowing Pioneer down. So it looks like gravity isn’t broken after all … . ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/2 "2011-03-31T20:57:11Z")
Good for me, I was on the [right track](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9697433&postcount=52). Maybe, I’ll be made a fellow of AIAA? I’m not holding my breath. 😃 Seriously, though, using rendering software to solve a problem is a classic sign of thinking outside the box. And best of all, the solution was so obvious, why didn’t I think of that? Congrats to them! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/3 "2011-03-31T22:42:03Z")
I really found the idea of Pioneer leaving the neighborhood interesting. Did Pioneer transmist a nice picture of the sun and planets in the distance? I’d really appreciate a link, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/4 "2011-03-31T23:35:02Z")
No, The Pioneers did not really have a camera like Voyager but scanned a picture in small bits of vertical stripes assembled together. The Voyager people (JPL) often criticized the Pioneer guys (Ames, TRW) for the poor images while the Pioneer people retorted their spacecraft’s particle measuring instruments were superior to Voyagers. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/5 "2011-04-01T01:29:32Z")
On the other hand, Messenger took a solar system portrait from the inside, near Mercury. [Photo here](http://eaae-astronomy.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/family_portrait_messenger_20110219.png). A portrait from the outside would probably be harder, because the inner planets would be lost in the glare of the sun. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/6 "2011-04-01T02:12:38Z")
Anybody else wondered what pioneers had antenna dishes? They were doing well to have healthy oxen. StG ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/7 "2011-04-01T12:17:15Z")
I’m suprised this hasn’t been worked out before, wouldn’t the deceleration effect reduce in proportion to the decay of the RTGs? I’d have thought that would show up clearly in the data. I thought the odd thing about the Pioneer anomaly was that is was a constant deceleration. Am I missing something here? > [@ralph124c](#): > > Did Pioneer transmist a nice picture of the sun and planets in the distance? > I’d really appreciate a link, thanks! No, but [Voyager](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Portrait_(Voyager)) did. Here is the [family portrait](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Family_portrait_%28Voyager_1%29.png). It’s a series of 60 images stitched together. Mercury isn’t visible as it was too close to the sun, and Mars was lost due to a camera artifact. The images aren’t much to look at, but they do include one of my favorite astonomical images, the famous [pale blue dot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot). Thanks Yumblie, hadn’t seen the Messenger portrait before. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/8 "2011-04-01T12:26:27Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Anybody else wondered what pioneers had antenna dishes? They were doing well to have healthy oxen. > > StG “Your antenna array has died of dysentery.” ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/9 "2011-04-01T16:52:03Z")
I totally thought this was going to be about Conestoga wagons… Joe ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/10 "2011-04-01T17:44:26Z")
Reading this solution (on a different site) was the first time I’d actually heard of the Pioneer anomoly. I’m glad of that fact, otherwise it would have, presumably, been annoying me for some time. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/11 "2011-04-01T18:33:39Z")
That’s one down – now for the [flyby anomaly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyby_anomaly)… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/12 "2011-04-01T18:42:27Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > I’m glad of that fact, otherwise it would have, presumably, been annoying me for some time. It HAS been annoying (or, at least, fascinating) me for some time. Hence my excitement that it seems to have been solved. However, I do admit that I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t turn out to be another Michelson-Morley situation: a tiny, unexpected experimental deviation leading to a massive rethinking of physics. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/13 "2012-12-24T18:47:04Z")
Bumped for relevance. This [article](http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/astrophysics/finding-the-source-of-the-pioneer-anomaly) goes into much more detail about how the anomaly was resolved. And makes the case that archiving data, no matter how mundane it may seem at the time, can provide answers in a way no one ever anticipated. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/14 "2012-12-24T20:44:12Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Anybody else wondered what pioneers had antenna dishes? They were doing well to have healthy oxen. > > StG I thought we were going to find out what happened to the Roanoke colony. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/15 "2012-12-24T23:52:14Z")
> [@Viktor T. Toth and Slava G. Turyshev](#): > > The magnitude of the force was still tiny by Earth standards—about the same as the backward push your car experiences in reaction to the photons spit out by its high-beam headlights. So, I could get better gas mileage by turning off my car’s headlights? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pioneer-anomaly-solved-yay-for-computer-graphics/576672/16 "2012-12-24T23:55:03Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I thought we were going to find out what happened to the Roanoke colony. You’re not the only one.