NASA has finally reconnected with its Voyager 1 probe after a mysterious five month blackout, the US space agency has announced.
The Voyager 1 probe – the most distant man-made object in the Universe – is now returning readable information to ground control.
It had previously been sending through incoherent information – and scientists were not sure why.
The spacecraft stopped sending readable data back to Earth on November 14, 2023.
But mystery stuck when controllers realised the spacecraft was still receiving their commands.
In March, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory found that chip malfunction was to blame, and rushed to provide a fix.
After issuing a coding fix to the faulty chip, Voyager 1 is back up and running again.
However, scientists still have to figure out how to begin receiving science data again.
“Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems,” the agency said in a statement.
“The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again.”
The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space, according to Nasa.
In January 2024, Voyager 1 reached 15 billion miles – or about 136 AU – from Earth.
Both Voyager spacecraft carry “Golden Records” – 12-inch, gold-plated copper disks intended to convey the story of human beings and our world to any alien life that might find it.
According to Nasa, “The records also contain instructions to play them using a cartridge and a needle, much like a vinyl record player.
“The audio on the disc includes greetings in 55 languages, 35 sounds from life on Earth (such as whale songs, laughter, etc.), 90 minutes of generally Western music including everything from Mozart and Bach to Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson.
“It also includes 115 images of life on Earth and recorded greetings from then U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) and then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007).”
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