How can scientists on Earth be able to communicate, send and receive signals from the universe?

You call a distance call, no matter how far, there is a "back support" network and send you a phone signal. But with a spaceship far from the universe, " network" could bear the burden?

Voyager 1, the spacecraft is far from Earth, with a distance of more than 20 billion km and continues to increase.

The answer for you: is NASA's DSN - Deep Space Network , one of the largest and most sensitive communication systems in the world. Of course it is for our world, is there a "network" that is bigger than NASA?

Note for you do not know, Deep Space - deep space is the space outside the influence of the Earth , ie not farther away than the Moon.

DNS also provides space observations, providing us with more information to understand the vast universe.

DSN is a giant NASA radio communication antenna placed at three locations: California, USA - Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia. It is responsible for supporting space missions and a number of satellites orbiting the Earth. DNS also provides space observations, providing us with more information to understand the vast universe. 3 networks are scientifically placed around the world (approximately 120 longitude apart), so when the station does not receive a message from the Earth, another station can immediately connect, not to allow cockroaches contact piece.

The antenna array is located in: California, USA - Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia.

All are contacted by radio waves. This type of wave travels at the speed of light (299,792,458 m / s - 1,079,252,849 km / h, more than 1 billion km / h). But for the wave to reach the ground system, Voyager 1, the unmanned vessel far from Earth now, will take 17 hours 15 minutes and 57 seconds, increasing each day (measurements at the time more than a year ago, because the Voyager is still on its "leaving the Mother Earth" journey. You can see the distance of the two ships belonging to the Voyager mission with the Earth here.

The DSN's large antennas are an indispensable connection for space explorers or with unmanned ships out there. It provides an important connection to the spacecraft and provides us with images, scientific information about the Earth itself or other planets, even the universe itself.

All are contacted by radio waves.

Each facility of the DSN is housed in a semi-hilly terrain, sunken pan to create a natural barrier to prevent radio frequency interference. Large antennas form a two-way transmission line from the DSN station to unmanned and unmanned spacecraft. They have the capabilities:

1. Get remote information.
2. Transfer the operating command to the spacecraft.
3. Software update for spacecraft.
4. Track the position and speed of spacecraft
5. Measuring various types of radio waves for research purposes.
6. Collect scientific information.
7. Adjust the operation of the entire network of terrestrial DSN.

Large antennas form a two-way transmission line from the DSN station to unmanned and unmanned spacecraft.

But nothing is perfect, DSN still has limitations and in the short term there are many challenges for this network in particular and the whole science of exploring the universe in general.

1. The DSN Network - Deep Space Network, with the name "deep universe" misunderstood many people.Currently we do not have future projects or dedicated satellites to be able to use for many purposes, many missions to explore.All transmitters and receivers are located on the Earth, so information is given and received and will be prevented by a great distance.
2. There are space missions that have been operating longer than expected, and still send back the collected data.Typically, the Voyager mission began in 1977, the mission of the universe is still extremely valuable information.These are the first artificial bodies to reach such far places.Although this is good news, to maintain and continue to receive information sent from Voyager, we need extremely large processors and ground antennas.
3. Replacement, maintenance is expensive and will cause the entire system to stagnate with time up to several months each time.
4. There are antennas that are close to "leaving life", they will have to be replaced soon.
5. By 2020, with this momentum, the DSN will have to shoulder twice as much as the number of missions it had to do in the 2005 era. Failure to replace the old DSN system is accompanied by increasing availability. more and more space missions that the DSN must deal with, inevitably will have consequences.