[FrankM]

A researcher prepared a report that put a different view on the cause of the Pioneer 10/11 anomaly.

http://www.glendeen.com/npa2007/Deen...10_Anomaly.pdf

Every official report on the Pioneer 10/11 anomally refers to the sunward acceleration, but the actual data is the constantly changing blueshift of the telemetry signal. The author normalized the rate of change of the "acceleration" over a specific period and treated these periods as a change in the "diffraction index" of successive spherical sections about the sun.

It should be noted that the author inverted the algorithm normally used to calculate the index of refraction, n, see para. 4 of the report. He held v constant (inside 20 AU) and allowed c to change as the spacecraft went outbound, thus resulting in an increasing value for n. The increasing n is directly proportional to the increasing blueshift with distance.

Para. 1 of the report states the effect quite directly, "A photon emitted by a spacecraft outside the entire onion would experience successive speed reductions as it crossed successive shell boundaries moving inwards towards the Sun."

I don't agree with his "onion theory', but it is a way to show that the density "of something" that effects the velocity of electromagnetic waves is changing with distance from the Sun.

The primary reference [1] used in the report (1.5 mb) is available at-

http://www.arxiv.org/PS_cache/physic.../0502123v5.pdf

[FrankM]

When Deen's Table 2 R-out values and their associated refraction index values were applied to an available regression analysis program, the resulting cubic and power regression curve fit equations were near perfect fits.

The power regression curve fit returned an r=1 value, the equation being y = ax^b with y =.000124956x^2 .

Although the regression curve fit for the way Deen presented the Pioneer 10/11 data suggests it changes with the square of the distance, the Ulysses spacecraft telemetry data has a blueshift rate that is approximately 73% higher. The Ulysses spacecraft has a 1.3 to 5.3 AU orbit.

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/9810/9810015v1.pdf

The Ulysses spacecraft has an instrumentation set that allowed them to identify the anomalous blueshift earlier in its orbit. I haven't been able to find any recent reports on the Ulysses blueshift.