On a correlation among azimuthal velocities and the flyby anomaly sign

Abstract

Data of six flybys, those of Galileo I, Galileo II, NEAR, Cassini, Rosetta, and Messenger were reported by Anderson et al. (2008). Four of them: Galileo I, NEAR, Rosetta, and Messenger gain Newtonian energy during the flyby transfer, while Galileo II and Cassini lose energy. In both cases this is a surprising anomaly since Newtonian forces originate from a potential and they are, therefore, conservative. We use a Whiteheadian theory of gravity to analyze the anomalies. Here we show that the gravitational field of a rotating planet, as derived from this new model, introduces a nonconservative force that gives a partial, but in our opinion satisfactory, explanation of these anomalies. This model also suggests a correlation between the sign of the anomaly and the sign of the azimuthal velocity at perigee.