pioneer puzzle

[miriam_e]

Anybody see this before? I found out about it through the new Australian science magazine Cosmos. Space.com has a good article on the problem at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_041018.html

The two old Pioneer spacecraft 10 and 11 have been heading out of our solar system for the last 34 years in opposite directions, but it turns out that they are not where they "should" be. The calculations are just a tiny bit out -- by about 400,000km, which sounds like a lot to us here on Earth, but out there it is a miniscule compared to the distance they've traveled.

Something is slowing their travel more than expected. What could it be? After posing many possibilities, all but 3 have been investigated and dismissed. Those 3 are:

    • dark matter
    • some other unknown force
    • our understanding of gravity is incomplete

Edit: the list of undiscounted possibilities is greater than those 3 above. See the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_anomaly for lots more info. Thanks to keithlard.

Comments

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

No, haven't heard of that story but let me know if you remember its title and author. Did read one time the theory that rats are the second team; if humanity destroys itself, they will fill the niche. I sometimes look at their hands, which have a stump where we have a thumb and wonder what would happen if a small mutation occurred. To begin with, you'd have a lot more trouble keeping them in cages!

Sue

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I think I may have spoiled some of the surprise of the story. I have a vague memory now that it is only indirectly revealed part of the way through the story that they are rats. When you begin reading it you are led to feel that the protagonist is a human. Damn! I will have to find the story now.

I think there are a number of other intelligent species in the wings waiting their chance if humanity stumbles. Rats are one, but there are also dogs, many parrots, various members of the crow family, dolphins, and a few less likely ones like the elephant fish (which has an enormous brain), and many of the social insects (whose hive intelligence exceeds the intelligence of the individuals).

My biggest bet would be on the omnivores in that list: rats, crows, to a certain extent dogs (they are not strict carnivores), and ants.

The termites have a lot going for them too. As social cockroaches (they are not white "ants") they live in sealed city-structures, can dig many metres down for water, don't need sunlight (except to drive their airconditioning in hot climates), and can survive on just dead wood -- they could even make it through a nuclear winter if they developed strategies to deal with extreme cold.