In December 2005, NASA announced that it had lost contact with the Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite.
IMAGE launched in 2000 to analyze the impact of the solar wind on Earth's magnetosphere has actually passed its approximate age. It is only planned for a two-year mission, but it continues to transmit data for 5.8 years before it disappears from circulation.
Now, nearly 13 years have passed and an amateur astronomer has found IMAGE back.
He searched in high earth orbit and detected signals from the satellite 2000-017A, 26113. These signals are the marks used by IMAGE.
Tilley then reported his findings in his personal blog Riddles in the Sky on January 21, 2018, and attracted the attention of other amateur astronomers who also reported the signal from IMAGE.
To AmericaSpace, Jeff Hayes as a helio-physics scientist at NASA, says we still do not know for sure if it is IMAGE, but we are trying to contact people who are knowledgeable about the mission and try to get the appropriate program if it turns out IMAGE.
Meanwhile, Patricia Reiff as space plasma physicist at Rice University who is also a former investigator in IMAGE mission hopes that the signal found Tilley is indeed IMAGE.
Because there is no other satellite that has all the capabilities of IMAGE. In the official NASA press release, IMAGE is said to be able to give researchers a broad view of the motion of particles in the magnetosphere, as well as to show how the sun interacts with the particles.
"(IMAGE) is very important to read the space weather and study the global response of the magnetosphere to solar storms," Reiff said.
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