Mysterious Force Affects Pioneer 10 & 11 Probes 829
JabbaTheFart writes "The Guardian is writing that something strange is tugging at America's oldest spacecraft. As the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes head towards distant stars, scientists have discovered that the craft - launched more than 30 years ago - appear to be in the grip of a mysterious force that is holding them back as they sweep out of the solar system.
Some researchers say unseen 'dark matter' may permeate the universe and that this is affecting the Pioneers' passage. Others say flaws in our understanding of the laws of gravity best explain the crafts' wayward behaviour."
It's the Klingons! (Score:5, Funny)
Or... (Score:5, Funny)
Matrix (Score:5, Funny)
I've got it! (Score:3, Funny)
Einsteinian Physics (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, just finished "Ringworld".
*mumbles* (Score:5, Funny)
Re:for the love of god, (Score:5, Funny)
no worries.... (Score:1, Funny)
Wayward behavior? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:explanation??? (Score:5, Funny)
Only if by "rare" you mean "all the time."
Conspiracy Theory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:5, Funny)
Contact with the Klingon empire was first made in 2151. Therefore, it is only logical to assume that they were nowhere near human space in 2004. It is most likely that the phenomenon in question was an anomaly caused by temporal vortex flux.
sorry 'bout that (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm... What attracts Probes? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A bit of editing would have helped (Score:5, Funny)
("Effect" as a verb means "to bring about or execute".)
not looking forward... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Matrix (Score:5, Funny)
That's no Moon... (Score:5, Funny)
It's a SPACE STATION!!!
Re:Matrix (Score:5, Funny)
"What you must realize is that there is no probe."
Funny coincident (Score:5, Funny)
How funny it would be if our world ended after Pluto and the stars would only be 'a painted backcloth'. I wonder what kinda effect it would have on our society. Scientist would propably spend years trying to explaing the phenomena, until one day a human could travel to the edge and verify the obvious.
Or maybe the aliens that run our world on their supercomputer have not yet coded the rest of the universe. Let's wait for few more years and see if 'the mysterious force' has been removed
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Conspiracy Theory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:no worries.... (Score:2, Funny)
I know, I know. I didn't buy it either
Re:A bit of editing would have helped (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Mysterious Force *Affects* Pioneer 10 & 11 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Or... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Laws of Physics (Score:3, Funny)
Re:blask holes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Laws of Physics (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dissapointment (Score:2, Funny)
You've never driven in West Virgina, have you?
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:3, Funny)
-B
Faster! (Score:3, Funny)
Get ready to sell your Reynolds Wrap stock... (Score:3, Funny)
Let's see...in the past few weeks we've...
Sounds to me like it's time to sell your Reynolds Wrap (aluminum foil) stock soon, 'cause our alien overlords are f---ing around with us now that we've found their planet. Pretty soon, you won't need tinfoil hats to protect you from their mind control beams. You see, they won't waste time on tinfoil hat types -- because they make the best treats for their pet Glargian devourers.
Those who sell their stock, while soon to be enslaved to the Zarlanian Horde, will at least know they had money to live it up before the invasion began in earnest.
IronChefMorimotoBy microwave bounce (Score:2, Funny)
An article at physicsweb.org [physicsweb.org] says:
When the craft were at distances of between 20 and 70 astronomical units, researchers found that the Doppler frequency of microwave signals that were bounced off the craft drifted at a small, constant rate
Re:Mod parent up (Score:5, Funny)
DooD1!! (Score:3, Funny)
:P
Abbot: Your holiness, our physics research team has discovered the reason for the heretofore unknown force on the Pioneer probes.
Pope: I KNEW we'd get to the bottom of that!
Maybe they are being probed (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds like a joke to me... (Score:5, Funny)
Q: Why are pioneer 10 & 11 moving off course?
A: Because dark matter sucks.
A2: Because intersteller space sucks.
A3: Because SCO sucks less, the farther away you get from it.
I'm going to be here all week people, and the 10:00am show is completely different once I get my coffee.
Re:How do they track them? (Score:2, Funny)
The big question is : How long until P'eer returns to Earth having amassed all of the knowledge of the Universe?
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wayward behavior? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:1, Funny)
No, Dude ... It's The COMET EMPIRE!! (Score:5, Funny)
Space Barnacles (Score:5, Funny)
Fry was right all along! (ObFuturama Quote) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Radiation pressure (Score:1, Funny)
That sounds like fun. To investigate this in a reasonable time, NASA can try to make the hot rod of probes. Make something to get out there as fast as possible. Like strap three ion engines to a chemical booster, do a hard slingshot around the sun, then keep the pedal to the metal all the way out to the heliopause.
Naturally it will also have a few Type R stickers. Each one adds 1 m/s^2 y'know.
Re:How do they track them? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Matrix (Score:3, Funny)
Re:for the love of god, (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Laws of Physics (Score:5, Funny)
Here in Germany, we have the Autobahn.
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:3, Funny)
OK, take your top off...
Re: Or... (Score:2, Funny)
That's the only logical explanation. Now, why Eddie is in the space-time continuum, that's not really clear...
Re:Austria and Australia (Score:5, Funny)
My point was to use a stereotype to poke fun at a random stranger, thereby bolstering my own sense of self-worth by deflecting attention away from my own, numerous insecurities and enormous sense of inadequacy. This is quite common on slashdot; people usually get modded up for it. Hope you didn't take it personally...
Re:The force! (Score:4, Funny)
Well, yeah, isn't that why they call it "dark matter"?
Sounds like a joke to me...Attraction. (Score:1, Funny)
They're being hit with earth's "don't leave us here" force.
They left the water running back at NASA.
The probes are all male, and will not ask for directions.
Free beer at Alpha Centauri.
Just a misunderstanding caused by them leaving their turn signals on for the last million miles.
Another metric units mistake.
explanation? (Score:1, Funny)
Austrian Toilets? (Score:4, Funny)
Austria is an island, in the sense that it's surrounded by Europe.
I'm not sure about Austrian toilets, but I'm afraid they may resemble German toilets [spies.com].
-kgj
Swapping and processing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:4, Funny)
This has the very desirable property, that Enterprise will move faster through the boring bits of a journey, and slower than a drunked snail when anything of equal or greater mass is in the vicinity (e.g. another ship).
You'll notice that when Enterprise does take a long time to cross empty space, it usually isn't empty - there's a nebula, a gravitational anomaly, a cloaked ship, or a heavy plotline. Any of these can distort spacetime, effectively gumming up the warp nacelles.
This behaviour is a natural consequence of warp field theory, in which the fundamental constant is not the speed of light, but the Standard Programme Length, from which the whole of QED (Quantum Episode Dynamics) arises.
Re:Funny coincident (Score:1, Funny)
Re:It's the Klingons! (Score:3, Funny)