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Heat 'Most Likely Cause' of Pioneer Anomaly 133

astroengine writes "Everything from clouds of dark matter, weird gravitational effects, alien tampering and exotic new physics have all been blamed for the 'Pioneer Anomaly' — the tiny, inexplicable sun-ward acceleration acting on the veteran Pioneer deep space probes. However, evidence is mounting for a more mundane explanation. Yes, it's the emission of heat from the spacecrafts' onboard radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), slowly nudging the Pioneers off course, that looks like the most likely culprit. It's unlikely that this new finding will completely silence advocates of more exotic explanations, however."

Comment Re:Population Control FUD (Score 1) 570

The population will peak, and then stabilize or decline.
I worry if it will be because of careful planning of fertility and resources, or by running out of resources.
Agriculture is fed by energy, mostly oil, and that's ever harder to extract from the ground.
But I guess I am a fucktard for even worrying about it.

'Terrorism', now there's scaremongering for you.

Comment Why should we expect a worse sun spot maximum? (Score 4, Interesting) 464

Why should we expect a worse sun spot maximum than previous maxima?
Nowhere in the two linked articles does it say anything about why it would be worse than 2006.
They don't even talk about the unusually long sun spot miminum we've had.
I was hoping for some science about how that might affect the coming maximum...

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