A pulsar, the heliosphere, and pioneer 10: Probable mimicking of a planet of PSR B1257 + 12 by solar rotation

Science

Volumn 278, Issue 5345, 1997, Pages 1919-1921

  Scherer, Klaus ^a,c   Fichtner, Horst ^b   Anderson, John D ^a   Lau, Eunice L ^a  

^a CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BONN   (Germany)

^c MAX PLANCK INSTITUT FÜR SONNENSYSTEMFORSCHUNG   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; ASTRONOMY; DATA ANALYSIS; HYPOTHESIS; PERIODICITY; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SPACE FLIGHT; TIME;

EID: 0031438688     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5345.1919     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. A. Wolszczan, Science 264, 538 (1994).
2. R. Malhotra, Astrophys. J. 407, 266 (1993); F. A. Rasio, P. D. Nicholson, S. L. Shapiro, S. A. Teukolsky, in Planets Around Pulsars, J. A. Phillips, J. E. Thorsett, S. R. Kulkarni, Eds. (ASP Conf. Ser. 36, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA, 1993), pp. 107-119.
3. R. Malhotra, Astrophys. J. 407, 266 (1993); F. A. Rasio, P. D. Nicholson, S. L. Shapiro, S. A. Teukolsky, in Planets Around Pulsars, J. A. Phillips, J. E. Thorsett, S. R. Kulkarni, Eds. (ASP Conf. Ser. 36, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA, 1993), pp. 107-119.
4. K. Scherer and J. D. Anderson, Eos (Fall Suppl.) 76, F332 (1995).
5. D. F. Gray, Nature 385, 795 (1997).
6. The experiment was designed as a celestial mechanics experiment to measure masses, special relativity effects, and recently, to detect large objects in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt.
7. The Doppler data are coherently referenced to hydrogen-maser frequency standards at Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in California, Australia, and Spain, and the radio wave transmitted from the ground is transponded by the spacecraft's telecommunication subsystem with a frequency ratio of 240/221. A summary of the Pioneer telecommunication subsystem, as well as other aspects of the spacecraft and its mission, can be found in R. O. Fimmel, J. Van Allen, and E. Burgess [Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond, NASA SP-446 (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1980)]. For a discussion of nonlinear least squares applied specifically to spacecraft orbit determination, see T. D. Moyer [Mathematical Formulation of the Double Precision Orbit Determination Program (JPL TR 32-1527, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 1971)], B. D. Tapley [in Recent Advances in Dynamical Astronomy, B. D. Tapley and V. Szebehely, Eds. (Reidel, Boston, MA, 1973), pp. 396-425], and J. D. Anderson [in Experimental Gravitation, B. Bertotti, Ed. (Academic Press, New York, 1974), pp. 163-199].
8. The Doppler data are coherently referenced to hydrogen-maser frequency standards at Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in California, Australia, and Spain, and the radio wave transmitted from the ground is transponded by the spacecraft's telecommunication subsystem with a frequency ratio of 240/221. A summary of the Pioneer telecommunication subsystem, as well as other aspects of the spacecraft and its mission, can be found in R. O. Fimmel, J. Van Allen, and E. Burgess [Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond, NASA SP-446 (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1980)]. For a discussion of nonlinear least squares applied specifically to spacecraft orbit determination, see T. D. Moyer [Mathematical Formulation of the Double Precision Orbit Determination Program (JPL TR 32-1527, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 1971)], B. D. Tapley [in Recent Advances in Dynamical Astronomy, B. D. Tapley and V. Szebehely, Eds. (Reidel, Boston, MA, 1973), pp. 396-425], and J. D. Anderson [in Experimental Gravitation, B. Bertotti, Ed. (Academic Press, New York, 1974), pp. 163-199].
9. The Doppler data are coherently referenced to hydrogen-maser frequency standards at Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in California, Australia, and Spain, and the radio wave transmitted from the ground is transponded by the spacecraft's telecommunication subsystem with a frequency ratio of 240/221. A summary of the Pioneer telecommunication subsystem, as well as other aspects of the spacecraft and its mission, can be found in R. O. Fimmel, J. Van Allen, and E. Burgess [Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond, NASA SP-446 (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1980)]. For a discussion of nonlinear least squares applied specifically to spacecraft orbit determination, see T. D. Moyer [Mathematical Formulation of the Double Precision Orbit Determination Program (JPL TR 32-1527, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 1971)], B. D. Tapley [in Recent Advances in Dynamical Astronomy, B. D. Tapley and V. Szebehely, Eds. (Reidel, Boston, MA, 1973), pp. 396-425], and J. D. Anderson [in Experimental Gravitation, B. Bertotti, Ed. (Academic Press, New York, 1974), pp. 163-199].
10. The Doppler data are coherently referenced to hydrogen-maser frequency standards at Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in California, Australia, and Spain, and the radio wave transmitted from the ground is transponded by the spacecraft's telecommunication subsystem with a frequency ratio of 240/221. A summary of the Pioneer telecommunication subsystem, as well as other aspects of the spacecraft and its mission, can be found in R. O. Fimmel, J. Van Allen, and E. Burgess [Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond, NASA SP-446 (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1980)]. For a discussion of nonlinear least squares applied specifically to spacecraft orbit determination, see T. D. Moyer [Mathematical Formulation of the Double Precision Orbit Determination Program (JPL TR 32-1527, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 1971)], B. D. Tapley [in Recent Advances in Dynamical Astronomy, B. D. Tapley and V. Szebehely, Eds. (Reidel, Boston, MA, 1973), pp. 396-425], and J. D. Anderson [in Experimental Gravitation, B. Bertotti, Ed. (Academic Press, New York, 1974), pp. 163-199].
11. K. Mursula and B. J. Zieger, J. Geophys. Res. 101, 27077 (1996).
12. J. D. Richardson, K. I. Paularena, J. W. Belcher, A. J. Lazarus, Geophys. Res. Lett. 21, 1559 (1994).
13. The solar wind data can be found at the following Web sites. Ames Research Center Pioneer Plasma Group home page: http://arwen.arc.nasa.gov; National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) COHOWeb: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cohoweb/form/cw_ds. html; NSSDC OMNIWeb: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa. gov/omniweb/ow.html
14. The data do not cover a full year because during conjunction the radio ray path passes the sun at about 11 solar radii, which is very close to the formation region of the solar wind in the ecliptic. Therefore turoulent plasma processes are dominant, and the radio signal to P10 is noisy.
15. R. von Steiger, J. Geiss, G. Gloeckler, A. B. Galvin, Space. Sci. Rev. 72, 71 (1995); L. F. Burlaga, J. Geophys. Res. 93, 4103 (1988); J. L. Philips et al., Science 268, 1030 (1995).
16. R. von Steiger, J. Geiss, G. Gloeckler, A. B. Galvin, Space. Sci. Rev. 72, 71 (1995); L. F. Burlaga, J. Geophys. Res. 93, 4103 (1988); J. L. Philips et al., Science 268, 1030 (1995).
17. R. von Steiger, J. Geiss, G. Gloeckler, A. B. Galvin, Space. Sci. Rev. 72, 71 (1995); L. F. Burlaga, J. Geophys. Res. 93, 4103 (1988); J. L. Philips et al., Science 268, 1030 (1995).
18. M. K. Bird, Space. Sci. Rev. 33, 99 (1982).
19. PSR = 0.19 km.
20. D. O. Muhleman and J. D. Anderson, Astrophys. J. 247, 1093 (1981).
21. A possible third object with a revolution period of about 170 years was recently reported [A. Wolszczan, in Pulsars: Problems and Progress, M. Bailes, S. Johnston, M. Walker, Eds., IAU Colloquium 160, 91 (1996)].
22. M. K. Bird, in Solar Wind 4, H. Rosenbauer, Ed. (Report MPAE-W-100-81-31, Max-Planck-Insitut für Aeronomie, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, 1981), pp. 78-83.
23. Part of this work was sponsored by the Pioneer Project, NASA Ames Research Center and was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. The Pioneer 10 radio Doppler data were generated with the support of JPL's Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate and the DSN.