2002/08/16 by Craig B. Markwardt, C. B. Markwardt, Markwardt, Craig B. · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/0208046
RevTeX, 29 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys Rev D
arxiv created 2002/08/16 · openalex publication_date 2002/08/16 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I perform an independent analysis of radio Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft for the time period 1987-1994. All of the tracking data were taken from public archive sources, and the analysis tools were developed independently by myself. I confirm that an apparent anomalous acceleration is acting on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which is not accounted for by present physical models of spacecraft navigation. My best fit value for the acceleration, including corrections for systematic biases and uncertainties, is (8.60 +/- 1.34) x 10-8 cm s-2, directed towards the Sun. This value compares favorably to previous results. I examine the robustness of my result to various perturbations of the analysis method, and find agreement to within +/- 5%. The anomalous acceleration is reasonably constant with time, with a characteristic variation time scale of > 70 yr. Such a variation timescale is still too short to rule out on-board thermal radiation effects, based on this particular Pioneer 10 data set.