By Andre Rodden PaulBBC News
23 minutes ago
picture explanation,
Voyager 2 has lost contact with Earth.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says it has detected a “heartbeat” signal from Voyager 2 that has lost contact billions of miles from Earth.
Voyager 2, which has been exploring space since 1977, received an erroneous command last month and then redirected its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth.
As a result, command reception or data transmission was interrupted.
However, on the 1st (local time), NASA announced that it had captured the Voyager 2 signal while continuing to search for signals in the sky.
Current location of Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is more than 19.2 billion kilometers from Earth. It is running through ‘interstellar space’ between stars at a speed of 55,346 km/h.
Since July 21st, Voyager 2 has been unable to receive commands or transmit data from NASA’s ‘Deep Space Network’, which consists of super-large radio antennas around the world. He could not even receive orders from ground controllers.
However, communication has resumed, albeit on a limited basis, and there is a small glimmer of hope.
Given that Voyager 2 is 20 billion kilometers away, it would have taken about 18 hours for the signal to reach Earth.
NASA said it has confirmed that Voyager 2 is still sending signals and is “in good health”.
Previously, on July 31, NASA announced that it was working to detect signals from Voyager 2 with a large antenna in Canberra, the Australian capital.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Voyager mission, said it was pouring the right command signals into the area where Voyager 2 would be located to communicate.
Although full communications have not yet been made, Voyager 2 is programmed to correct its orientation several times each year, pointing its antenna at Earth. The next course correction is scheduled for October 15th, NASA said, “contact may be resumed.”
Also, until then, Voyager 2, carrying scientific instruments, was expected to maintain its planned orbit in space.
Voyager 2 has been orbiting space since it was launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system.
Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, are the only probes that have ventured beyond the heliosphere (heliosphere), which is protected by solar particles and magnetic fields. The two probes reached interstellar space in 2018 and 2012, respectively.
It is designed to explore Jupiter and Saturn using rare exoplanets alignments that occur approximately every 176 years.
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have passed Neptune and Uranus, and Voyager 1 is currently about 24 billion kilometers from Earth, making it the most distant spacecraft in human history.
NASA posted on X (Twitter) last week, “As you may have heard… Voyager 2 is temporarily suspending data transmission until October. In the meantime, I’m doing well here, almost 24 billion kilometers from Earth! – From V1.” raised
Each spaceship carried a ‘Golden Record’ containing Earth’s sounds, photos, and messages to tell the story of Earth to extraterrestrials.
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Voyager 2 was launched 16 days earlier than twin Voyager 1.
