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Space: NASA reestablishes contact with the Voyager 1 probe
Space: NASA reestablishes contact with the Voyager 1 probe
(France 2)
NASA technicians have reestablished contact with the Voyager 1 probe. Since November, the probe, currently located in space 24 billion kilometers from Earth, has been sending incomprehensible data. It was launched in 1977.
After months of silence, Voyager 1 has made contact again. Currently located 24 billion kilometers from Earth, the probe has been sending incomprehensible data since November. NASA technicians had to compete in ingenuity to remotely modify computer code that was almost 50 years old. “It’s a piece of program that no longer worked because one of the computer’s chips no longer worked. So, we had to find another place to put this piece of program. They managed to put it in three places different, since there was no place that was large enough to accommodate all the information”explains Eric Lagadec, astrophysicist.
The probe drifts in interstellar space
Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 made it possible to closely observe Jupiter and Saturn for the first time, providing invaluable data on these planets. Since then, the probe has been drifting in interstellar space, and heading inexorably towards the confines of the universe. According to scientists, within 40,000 years, Voyager 1 should be more than 20 trillion kilometers from the Sun, or two light years.
