Related papers: Thermal recoil force, telemetry, and the Pioneer a…
The possibility that the apparent anomalous acceleration of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft may be due, at least in part, to a chameleon field effect is examined. A small spacecraft, with no thin shell, can have a more pronounced anomalous…
The concepts of weighted reciprocal of temperature and weighted thermal flux are proposed for a heat engine operating between two heat baths and outputting mechanical work. With the aid of these two concepts, the generalized thermodynamic…
In this study, we investigate the thermocapillary rotation of microgears at fluid interfaces and extend the concept of geometric asymmetry to the translational propulsion of micron-sized particles. We introduce a transient numerical model…
Atmospheric circulation on tidally-locked exoplanets is driven by the absorption and reradiation of heat from the host star. They are natural heat engines, converting heat into mechanical energy. A steady state is possible only if there is…
Achieving relativistic flight to enable extrasolar exploration is one of the dreams of humanity and the long term goal of our NASA Starlight program. We derive a fully relativistic solution for the motion of a spacecraft propelled by…
It has always been considered a serious error to treat the cosmological redshift as a Doppler velocity effect rather than the result of space expansion. It is demonstrated here that in practical terms this is not the case, and that the…
Dynamical friction can be a valuable tool for inferring dark matter properties that are difficult to constrain by other methods. Most applications of dynamical friction calculations are concerned with the long-term angular momentum loss and…
This treatise outlines how a non-systematic based Pioneer anomaly, with its implied violation (re: 'low' mass bodies only) of both general relativity's weak equivalence principle and the Newtonian inverse-square law, can be successfully…
The meridional component of the earth's rotation is often neglected in geophysical contexts. This is referred to as the `traditional approximation' and is justified by the typically small vertical velocity and aspect ratio of such problems.…
We argue that the so-called "Pioneer Anomaly" is related to the quantum vacuum fluctuations. Our approach is based on the hypothesis of the gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter, what allows considering, the virtual…
Directional detection can provide unambiguous observation of Dark Matter interactions even in presence of insidious backgrounds. The DM-TPC collaboration is developing a detector with the goal of measuring the direction and sense of nuclear…
Transmission spectroscopy is a powerful technique widely used to probe exoplanet terminators. Atmospheric retrievals of transmission spectra are enabling comparative studies of exoplanet atmospheres. However, the atmospheric properties…
In this paper we test the hypothesis that the Pioneer anomaly can be of gravitational origin by comparing the predicted model-independent shifts Delta a/a for the semimajor axis of Uranus and Neptune with the Voyager 2 radio-technical…
Matter manipulation with optical forces has become commonplace in a wide range of research fields and is epitomized by the optical trap. Calculations of optical forces on small illuminated particles typically neglect multiple scattering on…
We calculate tidal torque due to semi-diurnal thermal tides in rotating hot Jupiters, taking account of the effects of radiative cooling in the envelope and of the planets rotation on the tidal responses. We use a simple Jovian model…
The flyby anomaly is a persistent riddle in astrodynamics. Orbital analysis in several flybys of the Earth since the Galileo spacecraft flyby of the Earth in 1990 have shown that the asymptotic post-encounter velocity exhibits a difference…
Boiling crisis experiments are carried out in the vicinity of the liquid-gas critical point of H2. A magnetic gravity compensation setup is used to enable nucleate boiling at near critical pressure. The measurements of the critical heat…
Radial Velocity follow-up is essential to establish or exclude the planetary nature of a transiting companion as well as to accurately determine its mass. Here we present some elements of an efficient Doppler follow-up strategy, based on…
We develop a linear method for solving the nonlinear differential equations of a lumped-parameter thermal model of a spacecraft moving in a closed orbit. Our method, based on perturbation theory, is compared with heuristic linearizations of…
In many rotating fluids, the lowest-order force balance is between gravity, pressure, and rotational acceleration ('GPR' balance). Terrestrial GPR balance takes the form of geostrophy and hydrostasy, which together yield the terrestrial…