Researchers say Pioneer 10, which took the first close-up pictures of Jupiter before leaving our solar system in 1983, is being pulled back to the sun by an unknown force. The effect shows no sign of getting weaker as the spacecraft travels deeper into space, and scientists are considering the possibility that the probe has revealed a new force of nature.

Dr Philip Laing, a member of the research team tracking the craft, said: “We have examined every mechanism and theory we can think of and so far nothing works. “If the effect is real, it will have a big impact on cosmology and spacecraft navigation,” said Dr Laing, of the Aerospace Corporation of California.

Pioneer 10 was launched by Nasa on March 2 1972, and with Pioneer 11, its twin, revolutionised astronomy with detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn. In June 1983, Pioneer 10 passed Pluto, the most distant planet in our solar system.

Both probes are now travelling at 27,000mph towards stars that they will encounter several million years from now. Scientists are continuing to monitor signals from Pioneer 10, which is more than seven billion miles from Earth.

Losing 6mph per century. Could still be a number of things that could be causing this, especially out past Pluto. Wouldnt say its enough for a "new force of nature" until there's more evidence.

current created by the movement of past asteroids?

+1 for string theory fanatics i guess.

no point in contemplating actuall cause since obviously nasa scientist>jsp people.

We know far less about our solar system than most people think. It's not just 9 planets + moons + asteroids + sun. There's the Kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud after them. Many objects inside do not have the capability to reflect enough sunlight anymore for us to be able to detect them.

We know pretty much nothing about our universe and life as a whole. We probably know <0.00001% of what there is to know about the universe and so there will always be things we will not understand. You should always consider what we might not know as well as what we do know. For you will never discover new concepts if you don't consider the possibility of them existing.

Cool story mang.


Yeah, gonna have to agree with this mostly. The satellite could even be getting struck by very small particles of dust or something, though I have a hard time understanding how these dust particle would be going slow enough to simply slow down the satellite and not tear it apart like so many .357 magnum slugs.

Yeah its one of those "Problems" in modern physics. Literally there is no answer to the "Pioneer effect/anomaly".

did some reading on it (thanks, wikipedia )
seems like one of those times when the theoretical breaks down when applied to reality

I dunn like it