大象传媒

The American space agency, Nasa, has picked up a "heartbeat" signal from its Voyager 2 probe after it lost contact with it billions of kilometres away from Earth.

Last month, the spacecraft - exploring the universe since 1977 - tilted its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth after a wrong command was sent. As a result, the record-breaking probe stopped receiving commands or sending data.

But on Tuesday, Nasa said a signal from Voyager 2 was picked up during a regular scan of the sky.

Dr Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI - the search for extra terrestrial intelligence - gave Newsday detailed information on how the spacecraft's communications work and on what data it's getting.

He said Voyager 2 is: "In the interstellar medium, the space that's beyond our solar system, and that extends to the distance of the nearest stars." He said, 'there are particles in that part of the universe, space is not a complete vacuum."

(Photo: Computer image of Voyager 2 in space. Credit: Nasa)

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