Amateur Stargazers Identify Voyager 1 with 1950s Antique Telescope following Technical Hiccup
Voyager 1, currently venturing through interstellar space at a mind-blowing 15.5 billion miles (24.9 billion kilometers) away from planet Earth, presents a challenging communication scenario. However, not for a telescope designed to pick up on lower frequency sounds from the cosmos.
A group of dedicated stargazers tapped into the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands to pick up signals from Voyager 1 after a technical issue prompted the spacecraft to rely on backup transmission equipment. Constructed in the '50s, the Dwingeloo telescope joins an exclusive club of sky gazing devices capable of detecting Voyager 1's faint signals from the great beyond. This ability proves crucial when NASA's antennas struggle to establish contact with the spacecraft.
In a dramatic turn of events, Voyager 1 shutdown one of its radio transmitters in late October, leaving the mission team with no choice but to rely on the backup unit–an older, weaker transmitter last used since 1981. Voyager's alternative radio transmitter, known as the S-band, emits a far less powerful signal than its X-band transmitter. With Voyager 1 now further away than ever before, the NASA team was unsure if the S-band signal could even be detected. The Deep Space Network works for NASA, but it is optimized for communicating with higher frequency signals.
The Dwingeloo telescope, on the contrary, operates in lower frequencies than Voyager 1's 8.4 GHz telemetry. Regularly, the Dwingeloo would not be able to detect Voyager 1's signals, as the telescope's dish mesh loses reflectivity at higher frequencies. However, when Voyager 1 switched to a lower frequency, its communication fell within the Dwingeloo's frequency band, allowing the amateur astronomers to tune in to its weak signals.
The astronomers made use of orbital predictions to adjust for the Doppler shift in frequency caused by Earth's motion as well as Voyager 1's own journey through the cosmos. They managed to locate the faint signal in real-time, and later confirmed it matched Voyager 1's location.
Eventually, NASA's team reversed the course by reactivating Voyager 1's X-band transmitter in November, allowing the spacecraft to continue its expected operations. Fortunately, radio telescopes like Dwingeloo can serve as effective substitutes, helping to maintain communication when NASA's main communications array encounters obstacles.
The iconic Voyager 1 has continued offering scientists invaluable insights about our solar system and beyond for many decades. Its journey to interstellar space led it to remarkable encounters with Jupiter and Saturn, where it discovered two new moons for Jupiter, Thebe and Metis, as well as five additional moons and a new ring called the G-ring around Saturn.
The shutdown of Voyager 1's primary radio transmitter in October necessitated a switch to the backup unit, which had not been used since 1981 due to its weaker power. In this new frequency, Voyager 1's signals were detectable by the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands, demonstrating the importance of future space missions incorporating technology that can communicate across various frequency bands, even in the vast expanse of interstellar space.
