Bad news! Voyager 2 makes last call? NASA spacecraft lost out in space

NASA's Voyager 2 may have lost contact with Earth forever due to a communication glitch, leaving it to roam around in interstellar space alone.

NASA's Voyager 2 might never contact Earth again (NASA)

Voyager 2 is a space probe that was sent to explore planets far away in our solar system and it has reached the a region called interstellar space. Voyager 2 is the 2nd farthest human artefact from Earth after Voyager 1. But now, NASA is worried because something has gone wrong. The spacecraft's antenna has moved by two degrees due to a routine command glitch, and this little change has caused big trouble. Voyager 2 can't talk to Earth anymore or send back any data. The Deep Space Network's antennas on Earth can't reach it either. Voyager 2 is currently 19,935,511,250 kilometers away from Earth.

NASA fears that this might be the end of communication with Voyager 2. It's getting farther and farther away from Earth, and it may never be able to talk to us again. Right now, it's about 19.9 billion kilometers away.

But there's still a glimmer of hope. NASA thinks that this communication problem might be temporary. Voyager 2 is designed to reset itself a few times each year to point its antenna back at Earth. This reset might help it get back in touch with us. They plan to do the next reset on October 15.

The people in charge of the mission believe that even if they can't talk to Voyager 2 for a while, it will keep going on the path they intended for it. Voyager 1, its twin, is even farther away, about 24 billion kilometers, and it's still working well.

Originally, the Voyager probes were meant to explore the outer planets in our solar system. But NASA decided to keep the missions going after they passed the edges of our galaxy and moved into the space between stars, known as interstellar space. Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made thing from Earth, having crossed into interstellar space in 2012.

Voyager 2 took a different route and flew past Neptune in 1989. It entered interstellar space in 2018 and is still exploring that mysterious region. Both Voyagers have given us a lot of valuable information about space between stars.