Voyager 1 is currently explore interstellar quad at a distance of 15.5 billion international nautical mile ( 24.9 billion kilometers ) away from Earth . Communicating with the farthermost homo - made aim is challenging due to its extremely faint signals , but a scope designed to detect faint , low - frequency emissions from inscrutable space can still peck them up .
A team of amateur astronomers used the Dwingeloo wireless telescope in the Netherlands to receive signals from Voyager 1 after a communicating bug forced the space vehicle to swear on a backup vector . Dwingeloo , built in the fifties , joins an elect group of scope able to detect Voyager ’s faint radio sign from deep distance , a helpful ability when NASA ’s antennas , though to the full equal to , are n’t actively tuned to that absolute frequency .
In former October , Voyager 1 suddenlyturned off one of its radiocommunication transmitters , forcing the mission team to rely on a backup building block — a weaker transmitter that had n’t been usedsince 1981 . Voyager ’s second radio set transmitter , called the S - band , transmit a much fainter sign than its X - band transmitter . The flight of stairs squad at NASA was n’t trusted the S - ring signal could be detected , as the space vehicle is much further by today than it was 43 years ago . NASA uses the Deep Space internet to communicate with its space vehicle , but the global raiment of giant radio antennas is optimized for higher frequency sign . Though NASA ’s DSN antenna are adequate to of detecting S - band letter from Voyager — it can also commune in go - band — the ballistic capsule ’s signal can appear to drop due to how far Voyager is from Earth .
An artist’s concept of the Voyager spacecraft.Illustration: NASA
The Dwingeloo scope , on the other hired man , is designed for watch over at lower frequencies than the 8.4 gigahertz telemetry transmitted by Voyager 1 , according to theC.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station . Dwingeloo would normally be unable to detect signal being transmitted by Voyager 1 , since the net of the dish antenna is less reflective at higher frequencies . However , when Voyager 1 switch to a humble oftenness , its messages fall within Dwingeloo ’s frequency dance band . Thus , the stargazer take advantage of the spacecraft ’s communication glitch to listen in on its shadowy signals to NASA .
The astronomer used orbital predictions of Voyager 1 ’s post in distance to correct for the Doppler displacement in relative frequency due to the movement of Earth , as well as the apparent motion of the spacecraft through space . The weak signal was found alive , and further analysis by and by confirmed that it corresponded to the position of Voyager 1 .
Thankfully , the mission team at NASAturned Voyager 1 ’s X - band vector back onin November , and is currently hold out a few remaining tasks to get the space vehicle back to its regular DoS . Fortunately , radio set telescopes like Dwingeloo can assist occupy in the gaps while NASA ’s communication array has hassle reaching its spacecraft .
The iconic Voyager 1 has been feeding scientists with precious data about the solar organisation and beyondfor decades . On its way to interstellar blank , the probe had close encounters with Jupiter and Saturn and discovered two Jovian Sun Myung Moon , Thebe and Metis , as well as five new moons and a new ring called the G - ring around Saturn .
Clarification : This article has been updated to clarify that the NASA Voyager mission was not affiliated with the Dwingeloo research and to more accurately describe the capabilities of NASA ’s Deep Space web in detecting signal from deep space .
Amateur astronomyNASARadio telescopesVoyager 1Voyager 2
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