NASA has confirmed an extremely mysterious and unaccounted acceleration of their spacecraft towards the sun. The unexplained acceleration is persistent yet tiny– the result of a pull 10 billion times smaller than the force of gravity we feel on earth. The phenomenon was confirmed with the help of the Aerospace Corporation through detailed analyses of radio data from Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and Ulysses spacecrafts.

Researchers from Aerospace Corporation were invited to confirm the preliminary data examined by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory. JPL researcher, John Anderson, first saw this effect in 1980. However, it was only after accumulating 15 years of research data that he was able to confirm the effect was not the result of systematic errors. Mr. Anderson said, “Like a lot of problems in astronomy, many years of observation are needed.”

Another independent analysis of the data was conducted by engineering specialist and principal investigator, Phillip Liang, under a NASA Office of Space Science grant. According to Mr. Liang, a whole host of possible causes of the anomalous acceleration were eliminated by the investigation. His investigation team then examined other possible causes such as modifications to the model of gravity as explained by Newton’s Law- with the sun being the dominant gravitational force- or the possible influence of “dark” matter.

According to Mr. Liang, the research has generated an appreciable amount of interest among physics scientists. They are fascinated by the fact that while the acceleration is minute and has no significant bearing on NASA missions, it holds great interest because there is no explanation for it based on conventional theory. The effect is so persistent that it could indicate some physics were not considered in previous attempts to explain the motion of cosmic bodies in the universe.