Reinterpreting the Pioneer anomaly and its annual residual

摘要

In addition to its long-term constancy, the Pioneer (spacecraft) anomalyappears to only exist for bodies whose mass is less than that of: planets,moons, comets, and heavy asteroids of known mass. Assuming the observationalevidence is reliable, and not the result of an unknown systematic effect, aviolation of the Weak Principle of Equivalence is implied. To propose anadditional force fails to satisfy this constraint. This paper presents a newhypothesis involving additional field energy in the form of: a finite number oflunar sourced constant amplitude (Lorentz invariant) wave-like undulations uponthe gravitational field. Although apparently a futile suggestion, the author'smodel overcomes concerns regarding wave dissipation, wave generation, and theapparent constancy of the anomaly. A shortfall in motion arises because a tinyproportion of spacecraft kinetic energy is directed into a superposition ofnon-translational longitudinal oscillatory components. The restriction of thiseffect to low mass bodies is also addressed. Additionally, the annual residualof the Pioneer anomaly may be attributed to a real 356 day Callisto-Titan waveresonance. This hypothesis may also be readily applied to other solar systemanomalies including: the Earth flyby anomaly, an apparent absence of smallcomets, an apparent paucity of smaller bodies in the Main Belt of asteroids,and residual doubts concerning the migrating planets hypothesis that addressesthe too rapid formation of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.