Comments on: Ep. 174: Mysteries of the Solar System, Part 1

By: Peeter Joot

Peeter Joot — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:38:09 +0000

For the mystery of the space ships that are slowing down, radiation pressure (both from the sun and from the ship broadcasting back to Earth) were discussed to account for the issue. Also given as a possibility was some misunderstanding of gravitational theory. There’s a few other possibilities that seem more obvious that weren’t mentioned to be ruled out.

1) Friction. Perhaps the space dust these things are travelling through is slowing them down. If we think we know how much of this mass is in the solar system perhaps we are wrong about that or its distributions and concentrations in various regions.

2) We don’t understand the mass distribution of the solar system as well as we think (dust, smaller rocks, … up to objects of size that we cannot observe optically), and the net mass of the solar system is perhaps higher than what is modeled to pull back on the spacecraft.

By: Stephen Krisocki

Stephen Krisocki — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:45:10 +0000

Sorry guys, but again I need to point out a few more errors. The Pioneer spacecraft you mentioned, Pioneer 1 and 2, are really supposed to be Pioneer 10 and 11! They are both inactive space probes, contrary to the impression you were providing on this permanent global podcast. Contact with Pioneer 10 was last made on Jan. 23, 2003. Last contact with Pioneer 11 occurred on Nov. 24, 1995. As a suggestion for a future topic, Dr. Heidi Hammel claims that the reason for Neptune’s blueness is a mystery.

By: phinto

phinto — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:20:53 +0000

The idea for this series is brilliant, and the first installment was excellent. I will keep it in my ipod and listen to it several times. I am very much looking forward to future installments–I hope there are many.

Thanks for the GREAT work!

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:30:22 +0000

This is start of a great new series. Not so much “What we know and how we know it” but the even broader horizon of what we wish we knew and where exactly the current state of our knowledge grinds to a screeching halt.

The series will draw out crack pot theorists, but debunking misconceptions and speculation is constructive, informative and entertaining is it’s way.

Thanks very much for these podcasts.

By: Jon Paynter

Jon Paynter — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:05:49 +0000

Great show guys! Very interesting. I look forward to the next show – hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!

Sounds like all of those mysteries are clearly caused by an ancient, highly intelligent alien civilization. The evidence is overwhelming. I’m surprised you didn’t mention this in your podcast. My guess is that it is a bigfoot/Loch Ness monster hybrid that can teleport. They’re probably just doing this to mess with us.