Voyager 2 found! Deep Space Network hears it chattering in space
A signal from Voyager 2 has been detected by NASA's Deep Space Network over a week after communications with the distant probe were lost, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Tuesday.by Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex's 70-meter dish, Deep Space Station 43 , after a long-shot search.
The five-storey tall dish is the sole facility capable of reaching Voyager 2. It takes over 18 hours for a signal to travel from the probe to the dish, covering a distance of over 19 billion kilometers. "The Deep Space Network has picked up a carrier signal from [Voyager 2] during its regular scan of the sky. A bit like hearing the spacecraft's 'heartbeat,' it confirms the spacecraft is still broadcasting, which engineers expected,"Communications to VGER2 were severed when a series of planned commands to the probe inadvertently pointed its antenna's aim two degrees away from Earth on July 21.