Comments on: Data, Dogma, and Truth Too Detailed to Matter (most of the time)

By: uncle noel

uncle noel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:22:24 +0000

No, they’re here! And they’re looking for Milton Berle, whom they resemble. And slowing someone’s spaceship down is a very meaningful gesture in their culture.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:06:11 +0000

Nobody wants Milton Berle showing up uninvited on their doorstep!

By: Eamon Knight

Eamon Knight — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:44:43 +0000

Clearly, the galactic civilization, having detected our EM emissions from the early TV days, has placed Sol system under embargo. They are therefore directing long-range repulsor beams at anything mechanical emerging from our system.

By: uncle noel

uncle noel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:33:21 +0000

Aliens are messing with us?How ’bout dark matter?BTW, the article says 8,000 miles short a year; x35= 280,000 miles off. Still not a lot by interplanetary standards, but the chance of the difference in black body radiation between front and back supplying a significant acceleration seems small to me. These are not hot objects. And are they identical? If not, there’s the same problem as with the gas leak theory: Why are the decelerations the same?

By: Theo Bromine

Theo Bromine — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:28:25 +0000

Serena: As the aforementioned “DW”, I asked Eamon, and he assured me that the abbreviated adjective is “Dear”, not “Divorced”.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:13:20 +0000

Pioneer goes at 27k miles an hour, and over 35 years they are about 8K miles short. That is not very much. So yea, black body radiation coming out the leading edge?It is also the case that the deceleration in standard units is almost the same as the speed of light multiplied by the Hubble Constant. That is probably a coincidence.But the effect is almost identical in both space craft. To me that rules out the gas leak explanation.

By: Ahcuah

Ahcuah — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:44:41 +0000

I’m not sure I’m understanding the mechanism, but from what I am gathering, what is happening is that when it is hotter in the front, the momentum from the black-body radiation from that area then slows the Pioneers? And when other parts are heated, it gives a slight push away then, too?Wow, talk about precision measurements.Another possibility I’m not sure I’ve seen anywhere would be the effect of dark matter. Wouldn’t it tend to be slightly denser near the Sun and less dense farther away, so that our local measurements would be affected by that additional gravitational source, but the Pioneers, as they move out, would feel it more (not being contained within it as much)?

By: Serena

Serena — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:50:34 +0000

Hey Eamon,What the heck is a DW? A divorced wife?

By: Salad Is Slaughter

Salad Is Slaughter — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:35:40 +0000

Back in my satellite operations days I was doing day to day ops for APEX, the Advanced Photovoltaic and Electronics eXperiments. One day I walked into the payload area and one of the experimenters came up to me and said, "My instrument isn't giving me the numbers I expect." This guy was thrilled because he had something unexpected to look at, and possibly publish about.I always think of him whenever I read something from the creationists about scientific dogma and scientific heretics being Expelled They just don't get how a scientist thinks. They've never seen the thrill in a scientist's eyes when he turns on his payload for the first time, or the heated arguments over what's going on. It's not like creationists think it is (or purport it to be) at all.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:10:23 +0000

Yes, I was thinking about the fan as well. That is not a small amount.