The rare journey of the Pioneer probes has nothing of exotic

2012/04/23 Carton Virto, Eider - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astrofisika
• Ingeniaritza

Through very specific computer simulations, researchers from the United States and Canada have solved the mystery of thirteen years. The origin of the strange trajectory and acceleration of the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes is found in the same probes. Specifically, in the heat of the electric generator and the scientific instruments that feed on it. The heat emission hypothesis is not new, but it has been demonstrated for the first time by such precise simulations and also by two different pathways. Thus, exotic explanations based on dark matter, on the possible errors of the general theory of relativity, or on the theory of strings, are excluded.

For years the mystery has been the cause of the additional acceleration of Pioneer probes in the direction of the Sun, and the cause of the exponential decrease of this force. To solve the mystery, the researchers have worked two complementary ways. On the one hand, rebuilding the Pioneer 10 probe in the simulator. The nature and location of the generator of electricity and instruments has been taken into account, and the amount of heat emitted over time, its direction, and the contribution of each of the devices to the total force that has suffered the probe, has been calculated. Thus, the trajectory of the probe that calculates the simulation corresponds to the one that has really had. Likewise, based on the real data of the trajectory of the probes, the researchers have carried out a new analysis, calculating the necessary thermal forces for it to occur. Both analyses coincide.

In detail, the simulation has revealed that the main responsible for the additional acceleration is the thermal radiation of the instruments mounted on the back of the probes, located in the position of the backs of the Sun. The exponential reduction of the force and half of the life of the reduction around the 27 years is a consequence of the loss of efficiency of the generators of electricity. The generators take advantage of the heat of disintegration of plutonium 238 to produce electricity, but having an average life of 88 years, the hypotheses so far were not able to explain the difference. The new simulation has taken into account the deterioration of thermocouples in generators, and the theoretical result coincides with the actual data.

The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes were launched in the early 1970s and are considered to be located at the limit of the solar system. The last signal was received in 2003. Almost ten years later, the last mystery seems to have been revealed.