Related papers: A possible flyby anomaly for Juno at Jupiter
The core of every orbit determination process is the comparison between the measured observables and their predicted values, computed using the adopted mathematical models, and the minimization, in a least square sense, of their…
Astronomers occasionally detect an object having unexpected shape, unexplainable photometry, or unprecedented spectra that are inconsistent with our contemporary knowledge of the universe. Upon careful assessment, many of these anomalies…
The modern picture of the neutrino as a multiple mass highly mixed neutral particle has emerged over 40 years of study. Best known of the issues leading to this picture was the apparent loss of neutrinos coming from the sun. This article…
Satellite tracking involves sending electromagnetic signals to Earth. Both the orbit of the spacecraft and the electromagnetic signals themselves are affected by the curvature of spacetime. The arrival time of the pulses is compared to the…
The irregular satellites of outer planets are thought to have been captured from heliocentric orbits. The exact nature of the capture process, however, remains uncertain. We examine the possibility that irregular satellites were captured…
Recent investigations (e.g. Han et al. 2001) have shown that fitting the Hipparcos observations with an orbital model when the astrometric wobble caused by the companion is below the noise level can have rather unexpected consequences. With…
The observed zonal winds at Jupiter's cloud tops have been shown to be closely linked to the asymmetric part of the planet's measured gravity field. However, other measurements suggest that in some latitudinal regions the flow below the…
The analysis of the Pioneer 10 and 11 data demonstrated the presence of an anomalous Doppler frequency blue-shift drift which is interpreted as an anomalous acceleration. The Doppler frequency dirft follows by considering the motions of the…
The moment of inertia of a giant planet reveals important information about the planet's internal density structure and this information is not identical to that contained in the gravitational moments. The forthcoming Juno mission to…
Jupiter's weather layer exhibits long-term and quasi-periodic cycles of meteorological activity that can completely change the appearance of its belts and zones. There are cycles with intervals from 4 to 9 years, dependent on the latitude,…
An observation of Jupiter's tidal response is anticipated for the on-going Juno spacecraft mission. We combine self-consistent, numerical models of Jupiter's equilibrium tidal response with observed Doppler shifts from the Juno gravity…
In a reference frame fixed to the solar system's center of mass, a satellite's energy will change as it is deflected by a planet. But a number of satellites flying by Earth have also experienced energy changes in the Earth-centered frame --…
During 2016-17 the Juno and Cassini spacecraft will both perform close eccentric orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively, obtaining high-precision gravity measurements for these planets. This data will be used to estimate the depth of…
This paper discusses the likelihood of whether the Pioneer anomaly is due to 'mundane' systematic errors/effects or indicative of new or unappreciated physics. The main aim of this paper is to argue that recent publications suggesting that…
I perform an independent analysis of radio Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft for the time period 1987-1994. All of the tracking data were taken from public archive sources, and the analysis tools were developed…
We show that some primary special relativity effects, which are believed to be hardly detectable in everyday life, such as time dilation, relativistic Doppler effect, and length contraction, should tangibly and spectacularly show up here on…
We present an updated analysis of Jupiter's equatorial meteorology from Cassini observations. For two months preceding the spacecraft's closest approach, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) onboard regularly imaged the atmosphere. We…
Because of their unique designs, the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft have provided the cleanest Doppler, deep-space navigation data. Analysis of this data can be interpreted as showing an anomalous acceleration of these craft directed towards…
Stellar flybys in star clusters are suspected to affect the orbital architecture of planetary systems causing eccentricity excitation and orbital misalignment between the planet orbit and the equatorial plane of the star. We explore whether…
The atmospheric neutrino anomaly is the apparent reduction of the $\nu_{\mu}/\nu_{e}$ ratio observed in underground detectors. It represents either a reduction in the muon neutrino interaction rate or an excess of the electron neutrino…