Pioneer Anomaly and the Kuiper Belt mass distribution

Abstract

Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first probes sent to study the outer planets of the Solar System and Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to leave the Solar System. Besides their already epic journeys, Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft were subjected to an unaccounted effect interpreted as a constant acceleration toward the Sun, the so-called Pioneer anomaly. One of the possibilities put forward for explaining the Pioneer anomaly is the gravitational acceleration of the Kuiper Belt. In this work we examine this hypothesis for various models for the Kuiper Belt mass distribution. We find that the gravitational effect due to the Kuiper Belt cannot account for the Pioneer anomaly. Furthermore, we have also studied the hypothesis that drag forces can explain the the Pioneer anomaly; however we conclude that the density required for producing the Pioneer anomaly is many orders of magnitude greater than those of interplanetary and interstellar dust. Our conclusions suggest that only through a mission, the Pioneer anomaly can be confirmed and further investigated. If a mission with these aims is ever sent to space, it turns out, on account of our results, that it will be also a quite interesting probe to study the mass distribution of the Kuiper Belt.

arXiv commentPlain latex; 17 pages, 12 figures. Version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity (2006)

References in corpus (8)

• Study of the anomalous acceleration of Pioneer 10 and 11
• The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background: II. Model of the Interplanetary Dust Cloud
• Conventional Forces can Explain the Anomalous Acceleration of Pioneer 10
• Post-Einsteinian tests of linearized gravitation
• The Pioneer anomaly in the context of the braneworld scenario
• Directly Measured Limit on the Interplanetary Matter Density from Pioneer 10 and 11
• A Mission to Test the Pioneer Anomaly
• Astrophysical and cosmological constraints on a scale-dependent gravitational coupling

Cited by in corpus (18)

• The Pioneer Anomaly
• Quantum Physics Exploring Gravity in the Outer Solar System: The Sagas Project
• The Study of the Pioneer Anomaly: New Data and Objectives for New Investigation
• Thermal Analysis of the Pioneer Anomaly: A method to estimate radiative momentum transfer
• Odyssey: a Solar System Mission
• Testing General Relativity with Atomic Clocks
• Estimating radiative momentum transfer through a thermal analysis of the Pioneer Anomaly
• Dynamical determination of the Kuiper Belt's mass from motions of the inner planets of the Solar System
• A mission to test the Pioneer anomaly: estimating the main systematic effects
• Modelling the reflective thermal contribution to the acceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft
• Search for a Solution of the Pioneer Anomaly
• Orbital perturbations due to massive rings
• Perspectives in Fundamental Physics in Space
• Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Gravity
• Does the Neptunian system of satellites challenge a gravitational origin for the Pioneer anomaly?
• The impact of the Kuiper Belt Objects and of the asteroid ring on future high-precision relativistic Solar System tests
• The Variable-c Cosmology as a Solution to Pioneer Anomaly
• The Contribution of Thermal Effects to the Acceleration of the Deep-Space Pioneer Spacecraft