The two Pioneer spacecraft are not where they're supposed to be.
Big deal, you say? Well, yes it is. We're used to being able to calculate the exact magnitude of every force acting on anything we send out into the solar system. We rely on this ability. If our calculations are off, our space craft wind up missing their mark. And we don't load enough fuel to correct for very big mistakes.
John Anderson noticed a discrepancy in the positions of the two craft. It's not big – 8000 miles out of 219 million traveled every year. But it should be zero.
Anderson has spent ten years trying to rule out every possible source of error. He's invited other scientists to suggest anything he may have overlooked. So far, no one has.
Whatever the answer turns out to be, it's going to be interesting.
If celestial mechanics had a contingent of opponents, the kind Creationists are to evolution, they would seize upon this story to claim we know nothing at all about gravity, and that Velikovsky's planetary billiards scenario is possible. Or maybe those Trancendental Meditators do levitate after all.
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