The Pioneer Anomaly

TL;DR

This paper reviews the Pioneer anomaly, an unexplained acceleration observed in Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft data, discussing potential explanations and future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the Pioneer anomaly, summarizing possible mechanisms and proposing future investigations to understand the effect.

Findings

Unmodeled acceleration detected at 20 AU from the Sun

Various mechanisms proposed to explain the anomaly

Future projects suggested for further investigation

Abstract

Analysis of the radio-metric data from Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts has indicated the presence of an unmodeled acceleration starting at 20 AU, which has become known as the Pioneer anomaly. The nature of this acceleration is uncertain. In this paper we give a description of the effect and review some relevant mechanisms proposed to explain the observed anomaly. We also discuss on some future projects to investigate this phenomenon.