A few weeks ago one of our thread drifts brought up the idea that
physicists are not perfectly happy with the theory of gravity whereas
biologists see no problems with evolution..
The quote below came in a news letter from the American Physical
Society.
A new look at the trajectories
for various spacecraft as they fly past the Earth finds in each case
a tiny amount of surplus velocity. For craft that pursue a path
mostly symmetrical with respect to the equator, the effect is
minimal. For craft that pursue a more unsymmetrical path, the
effect is larger. In the case of the NEAR asteroid rendevous craft
(<http://near.jhuapl.edu/>),
for instance, the velocity anomaly
amounts to 13 mm/sec. Although this is only one-millionth of the
total velocity, the precision of the velocity measurements, carried
out by looking at the Doppler ****ft in radio waves bounced off the
craft, is 0.1 mm/sec, and this suggests that the anomaly represents
a real effect, one needing an explanation. Some ten years ago
another anomaly was identified for the Pioneer 10 spacecraft (see
http://www.aip.org/pnu/1998/split/pnu391-1.htm)
and a certain amount
of controversy has clung to the subject since then.
One of the researchers on that earlier measurement is part of the
new study, conducted by Jet Propulsion Lab scientists. John D.
Anderson (jdandy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
626-449-0102) says that the JPL
scientists are now working with German colleagues to search for
possible velocity anomalies in the recent flyby of the Rosetta
spacecraft. (Anderson et al., Physical Review Letters, upcoming
article; designated as an editor*s suggested article )
--
John Oliver
jdoliver@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
or MSN jdoliver98
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