| Issue |
A&A
Volume 463, Number 1, February III 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 393 - 397 | |
| Section | Celestial mechanics and astrometry | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20065906 | |
| Published online | 20 November 2006 | |
The constancy of the Pioneer anomalous acceleration
Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, PO Box 1029 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway e-mail: oystein.olsen@astro.uio.no
Received:
26
June
2006
Accepted:
8
November
2006
Aims.The temporal evolution of the Pioneer anomalous acceleration is studied to determine its correlation with solar activity.
Methods.Bayesian Weighted Least Squares algorithms and Kalman filters are used to study the temporal evolution of the Pioneer anomalous acceleration. Doppler data for Pioneer 10 and 11 spanning respectively 11 and 3.5 years were used in this study.
Results.The Doppler data itself can not be used to distinguish between a constant acceleration model and acceleration proportional to the remaining plutonium in the radioisotope thermoelectric generators. There are significant short term variations in the anomalous acceleration. These are shown to be consistent with radio plasma delay from coronal mass ejections.
Key words: celestial mechanics / ephemerides
© ESO, 2007
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.