Amateur astronomer picks up signal from NASA satellite lost in space for 12 years

An amateur astronomer picked up a signal from space – and realised that he was hearing from a satellite which had been lost in space for 12 years.

Scott Tilley, who is based in Canada, was looking for signals from a top-secret spy satellite launched by SpaceX – but heard something else.

He then realised it was a signal from NASA’s IMAGE satellite, which had ‘gone silent’ in 2005.

Tilley wrote, ‘Upon reviewing the data from January 20, 2018, I noticed a curve consistent with an satellite in High Earth Orbit (HEO) on 2275.905MHz, darn not ZUMA… I set to work to identify the source.

Tilley notified NASA, who confirmed that the rediscovered satellite is IMAGE, launched in March 2000 to study Earth’s magnetosphere.

NASA said, ‘Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will continue to try to analyze the data from the spacecraft to learn more about the state of the spacecraft.

MOST POPULAR ON YAHOO UK TODAY

• Teenager, 18, who repeatedly raped woman at gunpoint in ‘twisted tag team’ jailed for 20 years

• Don’t Tell The Bride couple DON’T get married for first time in show’s history

• Bentley driver caught breaking 20mph tells speeding volunteers he’ll report THEM to police

• ‘Manipulative’ benefits fraudster, 51, claimed up to £500k by pretending to be quadriplegic

• Theresa May has been given a surprisingly adorable nickname during her visit to China

• Mystery of Jack the Ripper letters may finally have been solved as ‘similarities’ are found

Tilley wrote on his blog, ‘Welcome back IMAGE! Serve us well again…’

He said, ‘As somebody who’s loved space since being a kid, I’m happy to have contributed something positive.’