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Wednesday 2 October 2013

How do scientists communicate with deep space probes?

Communicating with something over 11.2 billion kilometres (7 billion miles) away is no mean feat. It involves a huge network of worldwide radio antennas. These are strategically placed across the Earth so there will always be one that the probe can send signals to, 

Likewise space probes (e.g Pioneer 10) need radio antennas to send pictures, weather information and much more to. However power constraints mean the the probes transmit very weak signals that get weaker the further away the probe gets. Antennas have very large dishes to capture the probe's signal. Yet greater amplification and noise reduction is needed to boost the signal to a readable level.   

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