1 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, what's the first thing you think about when 2 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: you see something in space you don't understand. Well, my 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: first hope is always aliens. But my first thought is 4 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,920 Speaker 1: that it's probably a boring Mistand so as a scientist, 5 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:26,119 Speaker 1: your mind goes straight to the most dramatic explanation. Yeah, 6 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: we're all hoping that somebody out there hits the science jackpot. 7 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,200 Speaker 1: Everybody wants to find the thing that frocks the world. Yeah, 8 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: you know, people might not realize that science is a 9 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: little bit like playing the lottery. It's mostly wrong numbers, 10 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,159 Speaker 1: but occasionally you get lucky and you win the alien jackpot. 11 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: What's the price you might need to get wiped out? Yeah? Maybe, 12 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: but think about what we might learn along the way 13 00:00:51,440 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: in our dying moments. I am more hammy cartoonists and 14 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 1: the creator of PhD comments. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a 15 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: particle physicist, and I'm constantly on the hunt for something 16 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: weird in science. Not in your department, in science in general. 17 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: There's plenty of weird things in your department, weird stuff 18 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: growing where it shouldn't be. But no, I'm looking for 19 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: weird stuff in the data, hoping to win that jackpot 20 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: is your data like it's a scratch of kind or 21 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: like you make up the numbers. No, we are just 22 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: looking at particles smashing together and hoping that something that 23 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: comes out of it is unexplained. It's weird, it's something 24 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: that our current theories of physics do not predict. Well, 25 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: congratulations to all of you because you've won the jackpot. 26 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: You are listening to our podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain 27 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: the Universe, a production of I Heart Radio. And your 28 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: prize is that you get to hear all about the incredible, 29 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: amazing mysteries of our universe, all the weird stuff that's 30 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: going on out there, all the little hints we have 31 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: about weird stuff that might be going on that could 32 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:08,239 Speaker 1: be clues that reveal deep secrets about the nature of reality. Yeah, 33 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: and just like a real lottery, this episode might be 34 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: a winner or a dud. We'll find out. We'll have 35 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:15,359 Speaker 1: to scratch off the surface. The price is the same 36 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: either way. That's right. The price is right meaning nothing, 37 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: You get what you pay for. But yes, science is 38 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: full of interesting mysteries out there, and it does happen 39 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: a lot, doesn't it. Daniel, did the scientists look out 40 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: into the world, or or try an experiment or do 41 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: something and things don't happen the way you expect them 42 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: to happen. Yep, everybody out there in graduate school knows 43 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,560 Speaker 1: that no experiment goes right the first time. But usually 44 00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:41,519 Speaker 1: the reason you've got a weird result is that you 45 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,120 Speaker 1: messed it up a little bit. You didn't calibrate things, 46 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: or you plug something in backwards, or you misread your 47 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 1: instrument or something. Usually there's a conventional explanation. But what 48 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 1: we're all looking for are those moments when you've done 49 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,560 Speaker 1: everything correctly but the answer is not what you expected. Yeah, 50 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: don't they say that the real moments in science or 51 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: not the eureka moments, but them that's interesting moments exactly 52 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: wait a minute moment. There are sometimes those moments. There's 53 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,919 Speaker 1: a fantastic audio tape that's floating out there of recording 54 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: of two astronomers listening to one of the first pulsars 55 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,639 Speaker 1: ever seen. They happen to be recording themselves for reasons 56 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: I don't know, while they were observing, and you can 57 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,639 Speaker 1: hear them going, wait a second, look at this, Oh 58 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:26,959 Speaker 1: my gosh, is that what we think it is? WHOA 59 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: that's interesting. Really, it's for real. Wasn't acted out so 60 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: those especially they were being recorded. It's for real, it's 61 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: for real. I encourage you to go out there and 62 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: check it out. In fact, maybe we'll dig it out 63 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: for our episode that's coming up on how pulsars were discovered. 64 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: But yeah, most moments of scientific discovery like, dang it, 65 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: my experiment didn't work. Well, maybe there's a better explanation, 66 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: you know, after you check off all the boring explanations. 67 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: Sometimes it's an exciting, fascinating explanation. Something new might be 68 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: going on, or sometimes it's something routine. It could be 69 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: either one absolutely and people might remember few years ago 70 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: we thought we had discovered new trinos going faster than 71 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: the speed of light. I won't say we there because 72 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: I wasn't among the group of people I thought that 73 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: was real. And humanity does something good, it's the royal 74 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: we including when they mess it up, it's them, it's 75 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: the Italians, them Italians. I won't touch that. But as 76 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: soon as that paper came out and I saw that 77 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 1: it had been written in Microsoft Word, I was like, no, 78 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: there's something wrong with this paper. What do you mean? 79 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: I wrote all my papers in Microsoft word. Yeah, point made. 80 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: Actually I wrote them in Adobie FrameMaker, which tell you 81 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: how old I am A little bit. Wow. That really 82 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: does teach you. But usually, as in the case of 83 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: the Fast and the Lighten New Trinos, is just a mistake. 84 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: In that case, they forgot to plug a cable incorrectly 85 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: and so their calibration was wrong and they mismeasured the speed. 86 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: But sometimes these are famous experiments in the history of physics. 87 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,839 Speaker 1: We see something we don't understand and it's actually a clue. 88 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: It's the first hint of a dramatic realization of uncovering 89 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: something we had no idea about. And a great example 90 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: is the photoelectric effect, which was an experiment around a 91 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:09,039 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty years ago that was the first clue 92 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: that the universe was quantum mechanical. Yes, it was very 93 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 1: illuminating and electrifying at the same time for humanity and 94 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: very effective. Yeah. So today we'll be talking about one 95 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,920 Speaker 1: such mystery in science, and in particular in space science 96 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: that happened a few years ago. Daniel right, how long 97 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: ago was this or is it still ongoing? It was 98 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 1: resolved a few years ago, but it went on for 99 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:34,359 Speaker 1: several decades. This is an outstanding mystery that puzzled people, 100 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: that caused them to dig deep into their attic of 101 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,920 Speaker 1: ideas for possible boring and exciting explanations for what could 102 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,800 Speaker 1: be happening to this spacecraft. Yes, it involves spacecrafts and 103 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: planets and basically just need toward space and mystery. And 104 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: it's an interesting journey right here. Amazingly, there's almost no 105 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: talk of aliens in this whole topic. Not yet. It 106 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 1: spressed to surface Daniel and see if we can win 107 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,280 Speaker 1: the library here so to be on the program, we'll 108 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: be talking about what is the Pioneer anomaly. Now, it's anomaly, right, 109 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: not animone, Just get confused. It's not an underwater sea creature. 110 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: It's not something you want deep fried and served before 111 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: your dinner. It's an anomaly. It's something that's not understood, 112 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,920 Speaker 1: that's anomalous, and it's something that happened in space around 113 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: what time. Well, it has to do with the Pioneer spacecraft, 114 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:32,599 Speaker 1: which was launched in the seventies and has one of 115 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 1: these incredible careers. You know, they expected to go on 116 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: for several years and then it operated for decades and 117 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: decades and decades and of course it's still out there, right, 118 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:45,159 Speaker 1: Pioneer ten and Pioneer eleven are still out there flying 119 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: out into the depths of space being pioneers. Of course, 120 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 1: now I have to admit I did not know what 121 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 1: the Pioneer spacecraft is or the anomaly. I was a 122 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 1: little puzzled by this, but as usually, we were wondering 123 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,240 Speaker 1: how many of you out there no or new this 124 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,919 Speaker 1: Pioneer anomaly is. So thank you to everybody who volunteered 125 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:06,719 Speaker 1: to answer these questions. If you'd like to participate for 126 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: a future episode, please don't be shy. Right to me 127 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. So think 128 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: about it for a second. If someone asked you what 129 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: the Pioneer anomaly is or was, what would you say. 130 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: Here's what peopled to say. I don't know, but I 131 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: imagine it's an abnormality're pretending to spacecraft or something. I'm 132 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: not totally sure what the Pioneer a normally is. Um 133 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: I can end the guest that has something to do 134 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: with the Pioneer spacecraft that were launched in the early seventies. 135 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: And I think, and now a very long why, I 136 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: have no idea. I don't know I have no idea 137 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: what the Pioneer anomaly was, but I assume it has 138 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: something to do with the Pioneer spacecraft and obviously something 139 00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: that you would not normally expect to have of help them. 140 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: I think that the Pioneer anomally was maybe like this 141 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: first irregularity found about our universe, and since it's the 142 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: Pioneer anomally, I think that this maybe marked like a 143 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: turning point for scientists and made them more curious about 144 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: what other anomalies can be found in our universe. Al Right, 145 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: not a lot of name recognition here, No, I was 146 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: a little surprised. I thought this was a little more famous. 147 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: I remember hearing about this in high school and thinking, woh, 148 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,880 Speaker 1: that's cool. I bet that's something real. Whoa you heard 149 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:39,680 Speaker 1: about it in high school? Like, oh yeah, like in 150 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:41,839 Speaker 1: physics class, or how did you hear about it from 151 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: your physics parents. I was a nerd, big shocker, so 152 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,200 Speaker 1: I just kind of interested in this stuff, and you know, 153 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: anything out there in space that was unexplained, anything that 154 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: might be a clue as to how something is working 155 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:56,679 Speaker 1: in the universe. I gobbled that stuff up to what 156 00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: I heard that we didn't understand where this spacecraft was 157 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: and what it was doing, and why I was doing 158 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: these weird things I thought. I think the real anomaly 159 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: is that you used the past tense when you said 160 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: you were a nerd. It's not up to me to 161 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: evaluate that. All right, Well, there is something called the 162 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:18,800 Speaker 1: Pioneer anomaly, and let's break it down for people. Daniel, 163 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: what is the Pioneer anomaly? So, as expected, it's an 164 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: anomoly that has to do with the Pioneer spacecraft and 165 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: specifically is that we didn't understand where it was going 166 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: and why it seemed to be going off course for 167 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,439 Speaker 1: reasons we did not understand. Okay, so it was a spacecraft, 168 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:40,199 Speaker 1: meaning like a satellite. I always get confusible to say 169 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:45,080 Speaker 1: spacecraft because I imagine you know, Battlestar Galactica or you know, 170 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: people in uh in a cockpit or something. But really 171 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: would just mean, like, you know, any device we launched 172 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 1: into space is called the spacecraft. Yeah, it's not a 173 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: satellite because it's not in orbit around Earth or any 174 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:58,840 Speaker 1: other sort of body. It's just sort of sent out 175 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: there to explore. And it's called pioneer because it really 176 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,760 Speaker 1: was a pioneering mission. It was the first thing from Earth, 177 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: first scientific object sent out to explore the outer Solar System. 178 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 1: It was the first man made object to go through 179 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:14,840 Speaker 1: the asteroid belt. For example, it was the first close 180 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,719 Speaker 1: flyby of Jupiter, Like the first close up pictures of 181 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:21,160 Speaker 1: Jupiter came from Pioneer. So when was it launched. It 182 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: was a while ago, right, maybe older than us. It's 183 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: been a nerd since longer than I have. Pioneer ten 184 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:29,000 Speaker 1: was launched in March of seventy two, and Pioneer eleven 185 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 1: in April of seventy three. And you know, these were 186 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: iconic missions. Before this, we didn't really know what things 187 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: looked like out there. We had telescopes from Earth that 188 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 1: were pretty good, I guess, nothing compared to what we 189 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 1: have now. But if you call up in your mind 190 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: an image of Jupiter, you probably have a pretty detailed 191 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 1: image thanks to Hubble and thanks to all the spacecraft 192 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 1: we sent to visit close up. But in the seventies, 193 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:51,760 Speaker 1: if you tried to do that, all you could have 194 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,600 Speaker 1: was like a blurry smear. We just didn't know in 195 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: detail what these planets looked like until we went to 196 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:00,120 Speaker 1: visit them. So this was the first spacecraft to go 197 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: and do that. Wow, even our telescopes couldn't get us 198 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 1: a good picture. I mean they were all right, but 199 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: nothing compared to what Pioneer could do. And it was 200 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,120 Speaker 1: an exciting moment even for the public. When these pictures 201 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,280 Speaker 1: started to come back. They had like a prime time 202 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,199 Speaker 1: television show to release these to the public, and people 203 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 1: were glued to their screens. That TV show actually won 204 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,199 Speaker 1: an Emmy. Really, they had a whole show where they 205 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: just revealed the photographs. Yeah, exactly. It was exciting. People 206 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,000 Speaker 1: wanted to know, so it was really popular. It was 207 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: you know, back in the day, every sort of launch 208 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: was a special moment, and these kind of pictures they 209 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,120 Speaker 1: were priceless. They still are now. Was it a daytime 210 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:35,439 Speaker 1: Emmy or a prime time Emmy? Those are two very 211 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,920 Speaker 1: different things. I think it was a prime time Emmy. 212 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,080 Speaker 1: That's the good one. Right, Well, it depends on you 213 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,359 Speaker 1: know what you're going for. So they launched a spacecraft 214 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:46,600 Speaker 1: in seventy two, and they launched like a brother, like 215 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 1: a sibling sister spacecraft in the next year. Yeah, Pioneer 216 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,120 Speaker 1: ten went to visit Jupiter and then Pioneer eleven did 217 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: Jupiter and Saturn, and this is the end of the series, 218 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,240 Speaker 1: like these are ten and eleven. There was Pioneer six, 219 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: Pioneers seven, Pioneer eight, Pioneer line. Those are in sort 220 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:05,319 Speaker 1: of solar orbit there like experimental spacecraft to develop the technology. 221 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,679 Speaker 1: But these have all lasted for decades, Like we heard 222 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 1: from Pioneer ten last in two thousand and three, which 223 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,840 Speaker 1: is like thirty years after we launched it. Wow. Now 224 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:18,959 Speaker 1: it's kind of weird because if you're like Pioneer number thirteen, 225 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:25,280 Speaker 1: are you still a pioneering the thirteen first want to 226 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 1: do something? That's true? But Pioneer tend you know, it 227 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,840 Speaker 1: was the furthest object from humanity for a long time, 228 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,640 Speaker 1: and it was like the farthest humans have had an 229 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: impact on the universe was Pioneer ten. More recently, we 230 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: sent Voyager one, which was launched in seventy seven and 231 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,000 Speaker 1: it was going faster. So it's now the furthest object 232 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:48,520 Speaker 1: from humanity, even though it left later. Now paint the 233 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: picture for us, what what do these spacecraft look like? 234 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: They basically look like a big satellite dish, which is 235 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,760 Speaker 1: how they communicate back to us, and then there's like, 236 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:00,559 Speaker 1: you know, a cube of electronics strap to the back 237 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: and that's where you have like instruments and you know, 238 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,480 Speaker 1: things that make measurements. This one has like a cosmic 239 00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:10,400 Speaker 1: rate telescope on it, something to analyze plasma, something to 240 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 1: analyze radiation. And then they've got a few things sticking 241 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:15,880 Speaker 1: off of them, like these big arms that stick off, 242 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:18,560 Speaker 1: and that's where the power sources are. For example, these 243 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: things are powered by radiation. There's a radio isotope thermoelectric 244 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: generator's plutonium in it, and it's basically just plutonium is 245 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: decaying and that the energy from the decay turns into heat, 246 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: which then they turn into electricity, and that powers this thing. 247 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:37,720 Speaker 1: It's like a plutonium battery. Well, it's a nuclear powered 248 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: spacecraft basically, right, Yeah, how else could you power this thing? 249 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:44,760 Speaker 1: Solar panels wouldn't be effective after decades when you're so 250 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: far from the Sun that it just looks like another star, 251 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: and we couldn't charge up our batteries and send them 252 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:53,600 Speaker 1: out there. So really nuclear power is the only way 253 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,560 Speaker 1: to power these very very long lived spacecraft. All right. 254 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: So we sent it out, and we sent it out 255 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,800 Speaker 1: to Jupiter and Saturn, and as something happened along the way, 256 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,880 Speaker 1: something weird happened. Yeah, the weird thing is that it 257 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,320 Speaker 1: wasn't flying the way that we thought it should. A 258 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 1: Pioneer turns out to be sort of unexpectedly a really 259 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,600 Speaker 1: really sensitive instrument to measure gravitational pull of everything in 260 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 1: the Solar System, and that's because it almost never fires 261 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: its thrusters. It's just sort of like a ball we 262 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:24,200 Speaker 1: threw out into space. A lot of the other satellites 263 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: that we send out there, like Voyager, it's got a 264 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: bunch of thrusters and it's constantly firing them to change 265 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:30,960 Speaker 1: this direction. So it's hard to predict exactly where it 266 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,040 Speaker 1: should be. A Pioneer, it's just spin stabilized, and we 267 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: just launched it out there, so we can use sort 268 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: of Newton's theory of gravity and then Einstein's modification to 269 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: predict exactly where it should be at any given moment. 270 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: And when they measure to see where it actually was, 271 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: it turns out it was kind of off course. Wait 272 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: a minute. First of all, we just threw it out there. 273 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 1: It doesn't have like, you know, a thrusters to steer 274 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: it or to change its direction. It does have some 275 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,360 Speaker 1: small thrusters and a little bit of fuel but these 276 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: are just in case it needs, of course correction. But yeah, 277 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: unlike later, spacecraft is primarily just like a rock that 278 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 1: we throw out into space. Now we keep it spinning 279 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,080 Speaker 1: a right that helps stabilize it to go in the 280 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,640 Speaker 1: right direction. But essentially we just toss it out there 281 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: and then we just measure to see where it went, 282 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: and that tells us something about like the gravity that 283 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: experiences along the way. That's wow. And how do we 284 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: know where it is? If we just throw it out 285 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,960 Speaker 1: on into space. It sends us messages and it answers messages, 286 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,440 Speaker 1: and we can tell how far away it is by 287 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:31,880 Speaker 1: how long those messages take to come back. And we 288 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: can also tell how fast it's going by the Doppler 289 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: shift of its messages. The faster it's going, the more 290 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: the wavelength is change of the messages that return. So 291 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 1: we have those two pieces of information, how far away 292 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 1: it is and how fast it's going. And I guess 293 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:48,080 Speaker 1: we triangulate like if we've talked it one day and 294 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:49,600 Speaker 1: then we talked it the next month, and we can 295 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 1: sort of as the Earth move, we can is that 296 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 1: how we can tell where it is? Yeah, Also because 297 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: we can tell where the signal is coming from right 298 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 1: and located in the sky, and so we can tell 299 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:00,960 Speaker 1: where it is, how far way it is, and how 300 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: fast it's moving, and then we compare that to like 301 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: our model of where we think it should be. Are 302 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: you want to keep up to date and like is 303 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 1: this thing going in the right direction and isn't it 304 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 1: a crash into Jupiter or just fly by? Right? All right? 305 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: So then we threw this spacecraft into space and it 306 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 1: didn't go where we thought it would, right, that's the anomaly. 307 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:22,680 Speaker 1: That's the anomaly. It was hundreds of kilometers off course. 308 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,160 Speaker 1: Something was pulling on this thing. It was slowing it 309 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,280 Speaker 1: down in a way that we did not understand. There's 310 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:33,080 Speaker 1: some small acceleration of this thing towards the Sun that 311 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 1: didn't have an explanation from any known physics. Weird, hundreds 312 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: of kilometers off course, that's that's not a little. It's 313 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,720 Speaker 1: not a little like if I if I missed an 314 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:47,560 Speaker 1: address by kilometers of being another state. Yeah, it's actually 315 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,560 Speaker 1: a really really tiny effect, but it adds up over 316 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: the thousands and thousands kilometers of its journey. The effect 317 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: of this force, this unexplained anomalous force, is ten billion 318 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 1: times smaller then the acceleration we feel here on Earth 319 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,840 Speaker 1: from the gravitational pull of the Earth. So that's small 320 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,679 Speaker 1: effect really adds up over the lifetime the decades of 321 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: this craft's flight to get it hundreds of kilometers off course, 322 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:14,439 Speaker 1: all right, And so and we knew one thing about it, 323 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:19,120 Speaker 1: which is that this mystery acceleration was directed towards the Sun. 324 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,600 Speaker 1: That's one clue. That's one clue. The other clue was 325 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: that the same thing happened for Pioneer eleven wasn't just 326 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: like some weird thing like, oh, maybe we shot Pioneer 327 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: tan off in the wrong direction or make a mismeasurement 328 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,920 Speaker 1: early on, like the same thing happened to another spacecraft. 329 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,880 Speaker 1: I see, did it happen for Pioneer one through nine? Uh? 330 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: Those guys didn't go out into the outer Solar System, 331 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,360 Speaker 1: so they didn't get a chance to probe that. I see. 332 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,880 Speaker 1: They weren't true pioneers. Yeah, And the Voyager missions which 333 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:48,880 Speaker 1: went out sort of in the same area, they had 334 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: lots of complicated thrusters and were always doing these adjustments, 335 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,200 Speaker 1: and so they weren't nearly as precise probes of gravity. 336 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:57,719 Speaker 1: They weren't just like pure flying rocks. All right, so 337 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:00,800 Speaker 1: that's the Pioneer anomaly, the big mr. What was happening 338 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 1: to the spacecraft that was steering them off course. So 339 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: let's get into what could be possible explanations for this 340 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: effect and also how it was possibly fixed. But first 341 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, we're talking about 342 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:31,240 Speaker 1: the Pioneer anomaly. These are spacecraft we launched in the 343 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,520 Speaker 1: seventies out towards Tupiter and Saturn, and they sort of 344 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: got off course for some mysterious reason. Daniel, Um. These 345 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:42,240 Speaker 1: are spacecrafts that are still out there, right. They're gonna 346 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: be out there for a long time. They're gonna be 347 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: out there forever. They just keep going, right. There's nothing 348 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,280 Speaker 1: we can do to stop them or pull them back. 349 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,520 Speaker 1: They're just sort of headed out into the galaxy. They 350 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: won't run out of batteries. They will run out of 351 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,280 Speaker 1: batteries eventually, you know, the half life of their plutonium 352 00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:59,119 Speaker 1: batteries like eighty seven years, So it's gonna go for 353 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: a while. But yeah, eventually it will run out of battery. 354 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:03,040 Speaker 1: But that's not going to stop it, right, It doesn't 355 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: need battery to go. It just has its velocity and 356 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: it just keeps flying. Oh wow, like basically too trash 357 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,840 Speaker 1: out into space. He'll be there forever. But we labeled 358 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: our trash, right, we put our names on it. We 359 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 1: said exactly who we are and what we're like found, 360 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:23,520 Speaker 1: come conquer us and us. This is reperiment on us. Yeah, 361 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,879 Speaker 1: it's commediently pointing towards us, right, yeah, exactly. And we 362 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 1: put a plaque on it. We said exactly how to 363 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:30,920 Speaker 1: get to Earth. We put like a pulsar map, so 364 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:33,120 Speaker 1: if you knew where the pulsars were in the galaxy, 365 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,920 Speaker 1: you could exactly triangulate where our solar system was. We 366 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:38,679 Speaker 1: put a picture of humans on it. We even recorded 367 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,720 Speaker 1: some sounds from Earth and put it on there, as 368 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: if like they would know how to play a record 369 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: and know how to interpret that. So we threw these 370 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: spacecraft out into the outer Solar system and they started 371 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: veering off course for some mysterious reason. Now that people 372 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 1: freak out or were they just sort of puzzled about 373 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,560 Speaker 1: this At first, they were just puzzled and they figured, well, 374 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: we must have made a mistake somewhere, or there's tiny 375 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: little effect that we hadn't accounted for, because you know, 376 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: it's not just as simple as you toss a rock 377 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 1: out into space and then you do gravitational calculations. There 378 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: are lots of really small effects. You know. One set 379 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:14,480 Speaker 1: of small effects is like, well, there's a lot of 380 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:18,200 Speaker 1: different sources of gravity. It's not just the Sun that's 381 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,840 Speaker 1: pulling on these things, and it's all the planets and 382 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:23,600 Speaker 1: all the moons and all the rocks in the asteroid 383 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: belt and all the tiny little things in the Kuiper Belt, 384 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: and you know, even other stars provide tugs. So at 385 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:31,679 Speaker 1: first people thought, oh, we just haven't been as careful 386 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:33,919 Speaker 1: as we needed to to sort of tie up all 387 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: the loose ends I see, like there could have been 388 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: like it may be passed by a big asteroid that 389 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,640 Speaker 1: maybe pulled it off course or something. Yeah, or even 390 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,840 Speaker 1: simple things like maybe we're analyzing the data wrong, you know, 391 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: we mismeasured it or misinterpreted this result or something like that. First, 392 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:50,959 Speaker 1: when you see something weird in your data, that's your 393 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: assumption is that we messed up or we just weren't 394 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: thorough enough. And the cool thing about pioneers that's very 395 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,000 Speaker 1: very precise data, and so it allows for really detailed tests, 396 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,440 Speaker 1: and so you can like go through your whole list 397 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 1: of ideas for what could be affecting the flight of 398 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:06,920 Speaker 1: this thing, add them all up, and then compare them 399 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,480 Speaker 1: to the number. It's a really valuable way to check 400 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,520 Speaker 1: your understanding, right because I imagine you know, like you said, 401 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: your first wish is that it's aliens. But I imagine 402 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:17,720 Speaker 1: you're also sort of afraid a little bit, like, oh 403 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:19,800 Speaker 1: my god, what if I made a mistake, Like what 404 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: if I I am totally doing this where I have 405 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: a typo in my formula or something. Right now, does 406 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: that emotion also pass through you? I'm sure it does, 407 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: you know. For those guys, you remember there was one 408 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:33,159 Speaker 1: Martian probe that crashed because somebody typed the number in 409 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,280 Speaker 1: in the wrong units, Like there was a European group, 410 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: an American group, and somebody put something in in pounds 411 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,120 Speaker 1: and somebody else interpreted in kilograms and oops, and then 412 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:47,400 Speaker 1: the whole thing crashed and burned. So yeah, mistakes do happen, absolutely, Yeah, 413 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:53,119 Speaker 1: just don't work with those Americans and they're non international system. 414 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,920 Speaker 1: In my personal research, there's very little opportunity for aliens 415 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:58,760 Speaker 1: to affect our data. I mean, that would be pretty 416 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:02,359 Speaker 1: awesome if aliens change the collisions at the LHC and 417 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:05,840 Speaker 1: cause new weird stuff to happen as a way to communicate. Actually, 418 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,400 Speaker 1: that would be a pretty cool science fiction story, right, 419 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: discovering aliens through particle collisions. Alien pranksters, alien physics pranksters. 420 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, Aliens, if you're listening, I welcome that. Please 421 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,280 Speaker 1: mess with our data. It's the large age on coliders. 422 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: Send us a message. The first physics from camm Alright, so, 423 00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: so what were some of the things that they thought 424 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,200 Speaker 1: could be happening here with the Pioneer anomaly. Well, the 425 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 1: first thing that comes to mind is just the location 426 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: of everything in the Solar System. So they went back, 427 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: they did a really detailed check and they thought, for example, like, 428 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,400 Speaker 1: how well do we actually know the location of all 429 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,960 Speaker 1: the planets, you know, Earth and Jupiter and Saturn. If 430 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,440 Speaker 1: those are off by a little bit, could that explain 431 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,400 Speaker 1: you know, a little gravitational tug. And you know, we 432 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,160 Speaker 1: know these things really well because we've been watching these 433 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,880 Speaker 1: planets for a long time and they mostly just obayue gravity. 434 00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,600 Speaker 1: So we have really really detailed models. We know the 435 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,679 Speaker 1: location these planets down to the meter, and these effects 436 00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 1: are just too small. So, like we think we know 437 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,160 Speaker 1: the gravity from all the planets and all the little 438 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,639 Speaker 1: things in the Solar system, there is uncertainly there, but 439 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,480 Speaker 1: it can't explain an effect of this size, all right, 440 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,159 Speaker 1: So it wasn't our measurement of the planets could be 441 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,000 Speaker 1: the measurement of you know, asteroids, because there is a 442 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: lot of dark asteroids out there. There were some asteroids 443 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:24,919 Speaker 1: out there, but those are all really small. You know. Remember, 444 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,800 Speaker 1: gravity is really weak, and so to have any sort 445 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,919 Speaker 1: of effect, you either have to be large or you 446 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 1: have to be close. So because the same thing happened 447 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,040 Speaker 1: to Pioneer eleven, we didn't think it was like a 448 00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 1: one off event that just like some object happened to 449 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: get near one of these things. So it seemed like 450 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,600 Speaker 1: it had to be some sort of more systemic thing. 451 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,080 Speaker 1: Another thing people thought about is like, well, what about 452 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 1: the solar wind? Right, the Sun is pushing on things, 453 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: It's not just tugging on them with gravity is actually 454 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 1: pushing on everything. You know, it's sending out streams of particles. 455 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:55,880 Speaker 1: You could use that as a solar sales and navigate 456 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,119 Speaker 1: the Solar system. So if you're like hunting down for 457 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,040 Speaker 1: tiny little effects. You might want to consider the effects 458 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: of the photons and the protons and the electrons that 459 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,600 Speaker 1: the Sun is streaming out right, but the solar wind 460 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 1: is pushing things up. But here something was kind of 461 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:13,160 Speaker 1: pulling the spacecraft towards the Sun right exactly, So it's 462 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,920 Speaker 1: the wrong direction. If anything, you would expect the solar 463 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,680 Speaker 1: wind to accelerate it, to push it further out into 464 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: the Solar system, making go faster. So we needed some 465 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:23,679 Speaker 1: other effects, something that was tugging it back into the 466 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: Solar system. And so this long list of basic checks 467 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,000 Speaker 1: were done, and none of them could explain what was 468 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,760 Speaker 1: going on. None of them are sort of strong enough 469 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,400 Speaker 1: to account for the deviations of hundreds of kilometers, So 470 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: it wasn't the basic stuff. Then that's when people started 471 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,960 Speaker 1: to get creative. I imagine, Yeah, they started to get creative. 472 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,840 Speaker 1: They thought, well, what if there's something else on the 473 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 1: spacecraft that's basically giving it a little push. You know 474 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: what if there's like effectively a thruster, Because think about 475 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: the batteries on these spacecraft. These things generate heat, and 476 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,479 Speaker 1: things that are hot radiate photons, and when you radiate 477 00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:00,440 Speaker 1: a photon, you're basically getting pushed. You know, you shoot 478 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,200 Speaker 1: off a photon to the left, then by conservation momentum, 479 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,560 Speaker 1: you're going to the right, and everybody, everything that is 480 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: hot is giving off photons. Like me and you, we 481 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,119 Speaker 1: glow in the infrared. Right, you put on night vision 482 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,200 Speaker 1: goggles like the Predator, you can see a human body 483 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,920 Speaker 1: because it's giving off in for a red photon. I 484 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: knew you would work in aliens somehow. Wait does that mean? 485 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,639 Speaker 1: Like if I put a flashlight out into space and 486 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,119 Speaker 1: turn it on, it would start to go like it 487 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,000 Speaker 1: would basically act like a rocket. Yes, a flashlight is 488 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,480 Speaker 1: a rocket, absolutely. It throws particles out the back, and 489 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: so it has to go the other direction. Now, if 490 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 1: you put two flashlights shining in the opposite directions, it 491 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,879 Speaker 1: won't go anywhere. They'll balance each other. So the pioneer 492 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,280 Speaker 1: people thought, well, it's got these things on it, but 493 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,320 Speaker 1: they glow in every direction, right, and so if heat 494 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,399 Speaker 1: is the same everywhere in the spacecraft, that's not going 495 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,040 Speaker 1: to effectively give it a push. When did? It depends 496 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: on the shape, Like a hot sphere would give up 497 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,040 Speaker 1: photons in all directions, But maybe, like I don't know, 498 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,280 Speaker 1: like it's something it looks like a dish might not. No, 499 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:02,680 Speaker 1: you're right, and it's a really interesting clue. And people 500 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,280 Speaker 1: thought for a while about this, like maybe the complicated 501 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,919 Speaker 1: shape of the spacecraft is not giving off heat in 502 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,480 Speaker 1: the same direction everywhere. But there was another important clue, 503 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,280 Speaker 1: which was that this effect wasn't dropping as a function 504 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: of time, like it wasn't fading. And we know the 505 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,679 Speaker 1: heat from these batteries should be fading, like this is 506 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,960 Speaker 1: a radioactive thing. It decays over the half life of 507 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,760 Speaker 1: eighty seven years. These things eventually cool and then just 508 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,880 Speaker 1: become dead. And so if it's due to the heat 509 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:30,919 Speaker 1: of the batteries, you would expect this thing to fade 510 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,399 Speaker 1: with time. But the data we had showed that it 511 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,359 Speaker 1: was constant. So people thought, well, can't be the batteries. 512 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: I see, it wasn't cool enough. It wasn't getting cool alright, 513 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,640 Speaker 1: So then what else did did they think it could be? 514 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,239 Speaker 1: So that's when he got exciting. They thought, well, we 515 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,680 Speaker 1: can't explain this using any sort of known physics, any 516 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: solar wind or any gravity or any heating of the spacecraft, 517 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,160 Speaker 1: so let's get creative. And people thought, well, maybe we've 518 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,920 Speaker 1: accidentally created something which measures like the expansion of the universe, 519 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,320 Speaker 1: because they thought maybe space is expanding inside the Solar 520 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:08,159 Speaker 1: System and it creates this weird gravitational potential. And we 521 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:12,400 Speaker 1: know that gravity and time are connected because, for example, 522 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:16,160 Speaker 1: if you go near a black hole, time slows down 523 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: for you. So over vast stretches of space, potentially time 524 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,119 Speaker 1: is getting slowed down as you move through these like 525 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:28,439 Speaker 1: expanded space. Whereas our clocks, the ones that we're using 526 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: to sort of predict where this thing goes, these really 527 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:35,640 Speaker 1: precise atomic clocks basically assume that space is flat. So 528 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,240 Speaker 1: if we're measuring time differently than something that's flying out 529 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,359 Speaker 1: into the Solar System, then maybe that could explain it, 530 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,040 Speaker 1: meaning like maybe the clock on the spacecraft is wrong 531 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: or do you mean like it's actually in a different time, 532 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,880 Speaker 1: it's actually in a different time. Yeah, this falls under 533 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,760 Speaker 1: this whole set of ideas like the non uniformity of time, right, 534 00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:58,520 Speaker 1: And we've talked a lot in the podcast about how 535 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,639 Speaker 1: my clock and your clock can disagree but both be 536 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: correct because there is no universal sense of time. So 537 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,160 Speaker 1: this is an idea sort of along that direction, like 538 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,720 Speaker 1: maybe we're measuring the expansion of space and those gravitational 539 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,760 Speaker 1: effects are distorting the clock on the spacecraft, not that 540 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,640 Speaker 1: it's wrong, but you know it's different. It's just differently timed. 541 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,919 Speaker 1: I see. So maybe the idea is that maybe it 542 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,720 Speaker 1: is it was supposed to be, but our measurement of 543 00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: where it is is wrong because the timing in the 544 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: clock on board is different than it we think it 545 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,280 Speaker 1: should be. And that was so the general concept like 546 00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: maybe something in this direction will help us because we 547 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,520 Speaker 1: know gravity and time are connected. But they couldn't actually 548 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,840 Speaker 1: make it work. They try to get the map all 549 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,720 Speaker 1: work out and say, is this consistent with general relativity? 550 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:44,840 Speaker 1: What we know about the expansion in the universe? Would 551 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,520 Speaker 1: that explain that? And it could never be made consistent, 552 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: and so it would have to be like some weird 553 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: deviation have to be some special case of how times 554 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,959 Speaker 1: affected by gravity for some reason only in our solar system. 555 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:58,840 Speaker 1: And so you know, when you start to develop like 556 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: a new idea of for how to explain some weird science, 557 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,160 Speaker 1: you want as simple a new idea as possible. You 558 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:05,640 Speaker 1: don't want to have to like add all sorts of 559 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,719 Speaker 1: weird bells and whistles and exceptions and stuff. And so 560 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,000 Speaker 1: this started off sort of promising and then ended up 561 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: being like, it doesn't really fit. It wasn't just that 562 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: they it was in the wrong time zone or daylight savings. 563 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,080 Speaker 1: That couldn't explain it either. No, I mean I make 564 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,960 Speaker 1: that mistake all the time, and they usually blame it 565 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:25,920 Speaker 1: on aliens, which is why I miss a meeting. But no, 566 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,400 Speaker 1: they couldn't explain this using any sort of general relativistic 567 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,520 Speaker 1: effects on the clock or even simple modifications to general 568 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:36,040 Speaker 1: relativity to allow for effects on the clock of the 569 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,400 Speaker 1: expanding space in the Solar System. So that didn't work out. 570 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,560 Speaker 1: You can't blame the engineers, and you can't blame Einstein 571 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,640 Speaker 1: or general relativity. What else could it have been. Well, 572 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:49,640 Speaker 1: people got excited for a while when they thought maybe 573 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: it was dark matter. Right, we've accounted for the gravitational 574 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 1: sources that we know about the planets and the rocks 575 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,080 Speaker 1: and the Sun, But we also know that most of 576 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: the gravity in the Unit verse isn't from the stuff 577 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,160 Speaker 1: that we can see. It's actually from this weird invisible matter. 578 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: We still won't understand that's everywhere, and we think that 579 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: it fills the galaxy. In fact extends beyond the galaxy 580 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: and it's five times as much of it as there 581 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,520 Speaker 1: is normal matters. So if you're studying details of gravitational effects, 582 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: you might expect to have to take into account the 583 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,160 Speaker 1: dark matter. Interesting. Yeah, like our solar system could be 584 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 1: or is probably bated in dark matter, right, that could 585 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,880 Speaker 1: potentially affect the gravity of things we send out into space. Absolutely, 586 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 1: dark matter definitely is here. It's everywhere. It's all around us. 587 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,640 Speaker 1: There's dark matter with us in this room, the dark 588 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: matter all around the Earth. We can't see it or 589 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,320 Speaker 1: detective because we think it only has a gravitational interaction. 590 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: And remember gravity is super duper weak, so usually we're 591 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: only sensitive to dark matter if there are huge amounts 592 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:52,440 Speaker 1: of it, you know, like galaxy sized amounts to affect 593 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: how the galaxy spins. It's really hard to detect like 594 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: local blobs of dark matter. So people got excited when 595 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,000 Speaker 1: they thought maybe Pioneer ten and eleven are like a 596 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: local prob they're telling us how much dark matter there 597 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,920 Speaker 1: is here. Interesting, But wouldn't if there was some anomaly 598 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: in dark matter, wouldn't it affect all the other planets too? Yeah, exactly, 599 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 1: it would. And we also don't think that there is 600 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: that much dark matter. We know that there's five times 601 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: as much dark matter in general in the universe, but 602 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,000 Speaker 1: we don't think in our Solar System there's that much 603 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,360 Speaker 1: because doesn't clump up we think the way normal matter does. 604 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,760 Speaker 1: Like if you took the normal matter in the galaxy 605 00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: and just spread it out throughout the whole volume of 606 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,560 Speaker 1: the galaxy, it would be pretty thin. That's the way 607 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 1: dark matter is. There's five times as much of it, 608 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,239 Speaker 1: but it's much more spread out than normal matter is. 609 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: So sort of in the volume of the Solar System, 610 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,160 Speaker 1: it's like one million of the mass of the Sun 611 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 1: of dark matter, right, see, So it couldn't be that either. 612 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 1: So then they couldn't blame it on a technical issue 613 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,800 Speaker 1: or sort of a theoretical issue, And so it was 614 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: a big mystery, I mean for decades, right, Like they've 615 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: seen this anomaly for you know, a thirty almost forty years. Yeah, 616 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:02,960 Speaker 1: people really worked on it for a long time, and 617 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:04,920 Speaker 1: it was in the nineties of people that is really 618 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,880 Speaker 1: detailed investigation went through all these possible explanations and couldn't 619 00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:11,760 Speaker 1: explain it, And then people had a lot of fun 620 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: coming up with theories of new physics to try to 621 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,080 Speaker 1: explain it potentially, and it's sort of like a standing 622 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,200 Speaker 1: question in science for quite a while. People even try 623 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,200 Speaker 1: to explain it using like weird modified gravity, like maybe 624 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,280 Speaker 1: gravity doesn't work the way Einstein and Newton thought we did, 625 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,920 Speaker 1: and somehow gravity changes when you get out into the 626 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,520 Speaker 1: outer Solar system. But you know, that doesn't really make 627 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,480 Speaker 1: sense because we understand how Pluto and Neptune and Neurinus operate. 628 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,400 Speaker 1: So there are a lot of questions about what could 629 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,080 Speaker 1: explain this on a lot of crazy ideas thought up 630 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,440 Speaker 1: to explain it, none of which were ever really very 631 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:47,080 Speaker 1: compelling or which worked. So it's sort of a question like, 632 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: are we gonna find some boring explanation for what this is? 633 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: Or is somebody going to come up with a new 634 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: idea that actually, you know, makes it all click together 635 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,480 Speaker 1: and tells us something new and deep about the universe? Right? 636 00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,240 Speaker 1: Are you going to get a try again when you 637 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:01,600 Speaker 1: scratch out the start of it? Or are you gonna 638 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:04,600 Speaker 1: win a million aliens in the process. All right, Well, 639 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 1: let's get into how this mystery was finally resolved, if 640 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,040 Speaker 1: it was resolved at all. But first let's take a 641 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:28,960 Speaker 1: quick break. All right, So the Pioneer anomaly was a 642 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 1: big mystery for decades back in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, 643 00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,920 Speaker 1: spacecraft we throughout their into space. We're veering off course, Daniel, 644 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,400 Speaker 1: How was it all resolved in the end. If it 645 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,200 Speaker 1: was so, we actually do think we have a pretty 646 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 1: good understanding of what happened by now, and it's due 647 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: to some sort of like data archaeology by some researchers 648 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: really dedicated, really interested in understanding how this worked. They 649 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:54,240 Speaker 1: went and found some old data in the mid two 650 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: thousand's and did a really detailed study and they think 651 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: they've cracked it. Oh wow, in the mid to of thousands. 652 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 1: So all this time, since the seventies, these space crafts 653 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,360 Speaker 1: were out there off course and people just sort of 654 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,040 Speaker 1: shrugged it off for a while, or that they just 655 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: gave up, or or what. Well, you know, when there 656 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,120 Speaker 1: are these puzzles in science, it's not always easy to 657 00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:15,799 Speaker 1: know how to crack them, and so sometimes they'll be 658 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,799 Speaker 1: out there for a long time, decades even people like, 659 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:21,400 Speaker 1: well that's not understood, but nobody really knows what to 660 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,200 Speaker 1: do about it. So finally somebody said, well, I'm gonna 661 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: try to go back and find some more data, dig 662 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: out some mold data nobody's ever seen before, and make 663 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,359 Speaker 1: a more detailed study than anybody's ever done before, and 664 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,319 Speaker 1: maybe we'll figure it out. Wow, that's wild to me, Like, 665 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,359 Speaker 1: how do you sleep at night? Like, let's say you're 666 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: the scientists or the engineer who worked on this, Like, 667 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:41,920 Speaker 1: how do you ever be at peace? You know, It's 668 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,000 Speaker 1: like if somebody told you, hey, I know it's your 669 00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,160 Speaker 1: car mysteriously moves an inch every night, and you're like, well, 670 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:51,040 Speaker 1: I don't know, how could you get to sleep? I 671 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,840 Speaker 1: think that's why smart scientists have great ideas in the 672 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,400 Speaker 1: middle of the night, because their brains are always working 673 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,120 Speaker 1: on these things, are always chewing away on these puzzles 674 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:03,000 Speaker 1: and these questions. All right. So then in the two thousands, UM, 675 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,080 Speaker 1: a group of people said, hey, we want to figure 676 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:08,040 Speaker 1: this out. So they say, sort of dug through all 677 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:09,960 Speaker 1: the old data. But that was kind of hard, right, 678 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,880 Speaker 1: because this is data from the seventies. Yeah, they literally 679 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 1: dug through old data and they were specifically focused on 680 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,600 Speaker 1: this question of the heat from the batteries and whether 681 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,880 Speaker 1: or not it really was decaying over time. And what 682 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: they discovered is that we didn't actually have all the data. 683 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,759 Speaker 1: Some of the earliest data from the spacecraft was like 684 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:32,040 Speaker 1: stored on magnetic tapes and not really included in most 685 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:33,920 Speaker 1: later analyzes because it was kind of a pain to 686 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,520 Speaker 1: go and find it and recover it and process it 687 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,000 Speaker 1: and stuff. So they did a bit of like archaeology, 688 00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: and they found more than a dozen boxes of magnetic 689 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,640 Speaker 1: tapes stored under a staircase at JPL in Pasadena, and 690 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,600 Speaker 1: they worked with like an old school programmer to create 691 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:51,960 Speaker 1: software that could read these tapes and clean it up. 692 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 1: So they got sort of a longer time series on 693 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,440 Speaker 1: the data than anybody else had, like data on what 694 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:00,839 Speaker 1: the position of it, or like the signals we were 695 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: getting from it, or what on the position of it is, 696 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: specifically the earlier positions. Remember we talked about how we 697 00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,839 Speaker 1: didn't think it was just heat coming off the spacecraft 698 00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:13,759 Speaker 1: unevenly because it would have faded with time, and it 699 00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: didn't look like it was fading with time. So to 700 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:17,799 Speaker 1: trying to answer that question in more detail, they said, well, 701 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:20,239 Speaker 1: let's look at earlier data data when it had just 702 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:22,120 Speaker 1: left the Earth to see if we can spot this 703 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:26,280 Speaker 1: effect earlier on. I see, you're looking for a weird 704 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,799 Speaker 1: effect on where you think it should be different from 705 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,359 Speaker 1: when then we're where it is, right, yeah, exactly. So 706 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 1: you're you're basically comparing curves. Right, you have the curve 707 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 1: of what you expect and the curve of where it 708 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:38,840 Speaker 1: actually was. And now you're trying to come up with 709 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,360 Speaker 1: a new expectation, like can we tweak how we understand 710 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:45,120 Speaker 1: this thing flies so that what we expect matches what 711 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:47,239 Speaker 1: we observe. And you also have to sort of look 712 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: back in time in the Solar system, right, like in 713 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: this back then, what where were all the planets and 714 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,359 Speaker 1: asteroids and all that in order to think about where 715 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,440 Speaker 1: it should have been exactly. It's a complicated calculation, and 716 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:00,920 Speaker 1: to do this right you need to know not just 717 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,839 Speaker 1: where it was, but you also need to know, as 718 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,839 Speaker 1: you were saying, where it's giving off heat. Like the 719 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 1: shape of this thing really affects how it glows, because, 720 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,399 Speaker 1: as we're talking about before, it's not just a sphere, right. 721 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,920 Speaker 1: Physicists always like to assume everything is a spear at 722 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,000 Speaker 1: first order, but the details matter when you're making really 723 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:22,320 Speaker 1: really precise measurements. And this thing has two big hot 724 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,240 Speaker 1: batteries on one side, and then like a cool dish 725 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,319 Speaker 1: on the other side. But it also has a bunch 726 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:30,120 Speaker 1: of instruments that use that electricity, and so as they 727 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,440 Speaker 1: draw current, they get hot, and as the heat up, 728 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,239 Speaker 1: they glow, and these kind of effects. Is just the 729 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,800 Speaker 1: glowing heat from these things is big enough to explain 730 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,160 Speaker 1: the effect that we're seeing. Yeah, and I think you know, 731 00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:42,560 Speaker 1: you say batteries and that makes me think of, you know, 732 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,439 Speaker 1: like as a battery or a car battery. But really 733 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,960 Speaker 1: these are like nuclear reactors right there their generators, Yeah, exactly, 734 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,200 Speaker 1: they're not fission or fusion. They're just sort of like 735 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,160 Speaker 1: slow rolling radioactive to k that generates the electricity. But yeah, 736 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: they are nuclear reactors. But also everything on the space 737 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 1: scrapt that he uses that electricity eventually leaks some of 738 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,840 Speaker 1: that energy. Nothing is perfect, right, and it leaks that 739 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,400 Speaker 1: energy into heat, just the same way everything that you 740 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,960 Speaker 1: use as electronics in it will eventually heat up. Your 741 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: computer heats up as you use it. Right, there's no 742 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:17,200 Speaker 1: like fire burning inside your computer. It's just inefficiency from 743 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: the use of electricity. So if you have an object 744 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,239 Speaker 1: on a spacecraft that's drawing electricity, not even just the batteries, 745 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,040 Speaker 1: but the equipment on the spacecraft gets hot as it 746 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,240 Speaker 1: uses the electricity. To understand the effect of all this stuff, 747 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,000 Speaker 1: you need to know like exactly where everything was on 748 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: the spacecraft and how hot it got. These days, we 749 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,320 Speaker 1: can do that pretty well. We have like really fancy 750 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 1: software to model this kind of stuff, but you know, 751 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,879 Speaker 1: we don't have the records that match that software from 752 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,480 Speaker 1: a really really old instrument, Like this thing was built 753 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,840 Speaker 1: forty years ago. You know, we have like blue plants 754 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:54,440 Speaker 1: drawn by hand by the original designers. So these researchers 755 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:56,640 Speaker 1: had to go in and build a model of the 756 00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:01,200 Speaker 1: sort of heat flow of Pioneer spacecraft by hand like later. 757 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 1: And it's involved like fifteen thousand individual pieces like exactly 758 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 1: where this cable goes and exactly how thick that piece 759 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: of aluminum it was, and like this is a huge effort. Wow. 760 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,560 Speaker 1: So yeah, they had to basically create a virtual model 761 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,760 Speaker 1: of the spacecraft and then put it out into space 762 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:21,760 Speaker 1: with the heat source and see if it would deviate 763 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,920 Speaker 1: the way that we they were seeing in the data. 764 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,560 Speaker 1: It's really incredible precision. You know. Think about like when 765 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,880 Speaker 1: you drive your car, do you expect your car to 766 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,120 Speaker 1: slow down when you turn the headlights on right. You 767 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,080 Speaker 1: don't expect it to, but actually it does. Right. Turning 768 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:37,320 Speaker 1: on the headlights slows down your car because you're basically 769 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,560 Speaker 1: shooting photons away from your car. So this is the 770 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,560 Speaker 1: kind of effect that we're looking for. It's amazing that 771 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,160 Speaker 1: it actually happens and they were able to figure it out. 772 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:50,120 Speaker 1: So now they're calculations, which include more time information and 773 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,959 Speaker 1: a much more detailed model of the spacecraft actually match 774 00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:57,920 Speaker 1: really well what we see. So they think they solved 775 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,359 Speaker 1: the mystery. They think they've solved the mystery. Turns out 776 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,480 Speaker 1: it was the plutonium in the power source next to 777 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:08,280 Speaker 1: Saturn exactly. It's just uneven heating right eventually over many years. 778 00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,480 Speaker 1: The fact that one side of this thing is hotter 779 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,239 Speaker 1: than the other means that it gave off more photons, 780 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,160 Speaker 1: which gave it a little bit of a push. It's 781 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,600 Speaker 1: like if you had two flashlights out in space and 782 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,799 Speaker 1: one of them was a teensy bit brighter than the 783 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,320 Speaker 1: other one, you would get pushed away from that flashlight, 784 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,040 Speaker 1: tiny little bit. And that explains why it was being 785 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:30,919 Speaker 1: pulled towards the Sun. Because you know that the way 786 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,920 Speaker 1: this basecraft is designed, you know you always want to 787 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,680 Speaker 1: point the dish back towards Earth kind of right, And 788 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: so that means that the hot stuff is sort of 789 00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,879 Speaker 1: in front of you, which was slowing it down. M Yeah, 790 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,040 Speaker 1: we're pointing the hot bits of this thing out towards 791 00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: the Aliens and the cold side back towards Earth. So yeah, 792 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,680 Speaker 1: that effectively slows it down a tiny little bit. I 793 00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:52,680 Speaker 1: guess the lesson is, you know, it's always better to 794 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:55,719 Speaker 1: have a hot back end. I'm not going to touch 795 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,720 Speaker 1: that at all, but Pioneer eleven apparently had the same 796 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,160 Speaker 1: hot back end, and that's why the same thing happened 797 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,520 Speaker 1: to Pioneer eleven. The story all sort of fits together 798 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,880 Speaker 1: and makes sense. And I love these sort of science 799 00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 1: stories when it all this clicks together and the explanation 800 00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:12,760 Speaker 1: matches the data and it all just sort of works. 801 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,680 Speaker 1: It's like, man, math is correct, physics works, the universe 802 00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:21,320 Speaker 1: actually makes sense. It's incredible. I guess you're simultaneously impressed 803 00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:24,440 Speaker 1: by yourselves but also disappointed that you're so good at 804 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,960 Speaker 1: figuring out the universe. Kind of yeah, it's not as 805 00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,080 Speaker 1: exciting an explanation is like we discovered a new way 806 00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 1: that time flows, or gravity is broken, or something like that, 807 00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:36,560 Speaker 1: or we have a clump of hidden dark matter in 808 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,400 Speaker 1: the Solar System that would be more exciting, but you 809 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,920 Speaker 1: never know, Like science is about exploration, which means you 810 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:46,120 Speaker 1: never know what you're gonna find. Usually it's boring dust 811 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,879 Speaker 1: and rubble, but sometimes sometimes it's a real diamond, it's 812 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,200 Speaker 1: a gem, something that gives you a clue about the 813 00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:54,359 Speaker 1: nature of reality, and you never know, which is why 814 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:56,520 Speaker 1: you just gotta keep scratching, all right. So then this 815 00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,760 Speaker 1: is sort of in the community, this is the most 816 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,880 Speaker 1: accepted explain aation of what happened. Like everyone feels like, 817 00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,719 Speaker 1: all right, these researchers totally nailed it, they totally explains it, 818 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: or is there still some sort of uncertainty about it both. 819 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:11,960 Speaker 1: I think people accept this as an explanation for what 820 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,879 Speaker 1: happened to Pioneer ten and Pioneer eleven, So that sort 821 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,320 Speaker 1: of anomaly has been solved, but there are still plenty 822 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:21,640 Speaker 1: of anomalies and how spacecraft moved, not just Pioneer ten 823 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:24,600 Speaker 1: and Pioneer eleven, but every spacecraft that does one of 824 00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:27,920 Speaker 1: these sort of gravitational slingshots ends up going off in 825 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,400 Speaker 1: the direction that we don't quite understand. This is called 826 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:34,719 Speaker 1: the fly by anomally. Basically, every time one of these 827 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:37,040 Speaker 1: things happens, it doesn't quite work out the way we 828 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,600 Speaker 1: expect and nobody really understands it. So there's a long 829 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,279 Speaker 1: list of things we don't understand about how things move 830 00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,880 Speaker 1: into Solar system. Even though as basic as just like 831 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,760 Speaker 1: gravitational mechanics about things moving in the Solar System, still 832 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,239 Speaker 1: have questions that need to be answered, right, which is 833 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,000 Speaker 1: all the more impressive that they can. I'm gonna say 834 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,520 Speaker 1: we because this is a good thing, So I'm gonna 835 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,960 Speaker 1: play the royal we here. We can like land spacecraft 836 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,239 Speaker 1: in Mars right and like know exactly where it's going 837 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:05,839 Speaker 1: to land on the planet. That's that's so amazing. It's 838 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,719 Speaker 1: really incredible what we the scientists and engineers have accomplished. 839 00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:14,399 Speaker 1: It's too bad what they messed up on. All right, Well, 840 00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:17,719 Speaker 1: that's the pioneer anomaly, and I guess we can reclassify 841 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:22,480 Speaker 1: it now, Daniel as a pioneer nomally, or the pioneer 842 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:27,520 Speaker 1: story or the high precision test of science, that is 843 00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:33,120 Speaker 1: the pioneer spacecraft. That's not as catchy, but maybe more accurate. Again, 844 00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:37,200 Speaker 1: another reminder of how you know vast space is I mean, 845 00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:40,680 Speaker 1: this thing is still within our backyard, just the solar SYSM. 846 00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,879 Speaker 1: And even even then, these distances are huge and there's 847 00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:45,360 Speaker 1: a lot that can happen out there when you go 848 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,279 Speaker 1: out into deep space. Yeah, Pioneer ten is more than 849 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:53,200 Speaker 1: twelve billion kilometers from Earth. It's tens of light hours 850 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,520 Speaker 1: from Earth and moving away really really fast. It's destined 851 00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,440 Speaker 1: to reach another star system in about two million years. 852 00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:03,279 Speaker 1: That's sixty seven light years from here. So maybe in 853 00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:06,000 Speaker 1: two million and sixty seven years we'll get a message 854 00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:09,640 Speaker 1: back from the aliens saying thanks for your garbage, Thanks 855 00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:15,160 Speaker 1: for your garbage. With the hot front end, back end, 856 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,080 Speaker 1: it's a hot back end. Let leave, we turn it 857 00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:19,800 Speaker 1: around and let's see if we can turn this around, 858 00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:23,200 Speaker 1: and we'll back into this cultural misunderstanding with the aliens. 859 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,200 Speaker 1: All right, Well, we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for 860 00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:36,319 Speaker 1: joining us, see you next time. Thanks for listening, and 861 00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is a 862 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,560 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio or more podcast from my 863 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:46,239 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 864 00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:54,479 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,