A sonification of data recorded by the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) aboard the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter spacecraft during the flyby of Venus on 10 August 2021. The accelerometer data was converted to frequency to be made audible to the human ear. The audio clip represents a period of two hours, one hour either side of the close approach to Venus, which took place at 13:51:54 UTC at a distance of 552 km from the planet’s surface. The sounds reflect the rapid change in reaction wheel velocity as the spacecraft felt the gravity of the planet, and the huge changes in temperature in the spacecraft structure.

Read more: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Sights_and_sounds_of_a_Venus_flyby

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/ISA/ASI-INAF, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Sound of a close Venus flyby

A simple sonification of the variability of the total magnetic field during BepiColombo’s second Venus flyby as measured by the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s Magnetometer (OB sensor). 

The audio spans the same time range 12:00 to 14:30 UTC on 10 August 2021, including the closest approach at 13:51 UTC. 

Almost all high frequency noises are due to spacecraft activity. The low frequency, wind-like noises are caused by the solar wind and its interaction with Venus. The sudden bow shock crossing towards the end can be heard clearly. The data is not yet cleaned from high pitch spacecraft disturbances, but the wind-like sounds allow a rare glimpse into the solar wind interaction with a planetary atmosphere.

What is heard is the 128 Hz measurement of the high-pass filtered (0.01 Hz) total magnetic field, mapped to audio with 44.1 kHz sampling frequency. For better audibility some compression, limiting and increase in gain is applied to the signal.

Read more: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Sights_and_sounds_of_a_Venus_flyby

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MPO-MAG/IGEP-IWF-IC-ISAS

BepiColombo - Mission to Mercury

The sound of the solar wind at Venus

The joint ESA/Jaxa BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the first time on 1 October 2021, capturing data with the magnetometer onboard ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter. A sonification of the magnetic field data is presented here.  
 
Two synthesizers can be heard, which are controlled by three characteristics of the magnetic field. The first synthesizer's pitch represents the slowly changing magnitude of the background magnetic field. First the solar wind is heard, then the increase and decrease of the planetary magnetic field, and then the solar wind again. The lower the pitch, the more intense the magnetic field. 
 
The pitch of the second synthesizer is controlled by the variations of the magnetic field magnitude. A more turbulent magnetic field is represented by a faster change in pitch. The magnetosheath crossing after closest approach is very prominent. 
 
Using the amplitude envelope as a control for the volume of the second synthesizer emphasises the different magnetospheric regions.
 
Full story 
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_s_first_tastes_of_Mercury_science

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MPO-MAG/IGEP-IWF-IC-ISAS

Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Sound of the solar wind at Mercury

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

WASP 96b - Transmission Spectrum

Southern Ring Nebula - Mid-Infrared

Southern Ring Nebula — NIRCam

Southern Ring Nebula - Side By Side

Cosmic Cliffs — Stars

Cosmic Cliffs — Top

Cosmic Cliffs - Complete Sonification

Despite being essential to life on Earth, the magnetic field isn’t something we can actually see in itself, or ever hear. But, remarkably, scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have taken magnetic signals measured by ESA’s Swarm satellite mission and converted them into sound – and for something that protects us, the result is pretty scary.
Sound design & concept: Klaus Nielsen (https://soundcloud.com/maplepools) and Nikolai Linden-Vörnle (https://soundcloud.com/kamikaze_vildsvin)
Image by Crimson Sound (https://soundcloud.com/crimson-sound-483379629)
Read the full story: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/The_scary_sound_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field

The scary sound of Earth’s magnetic field

One year ago, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted, causing widespread destruction to the Pacific Island Nation of Tonga. It spewed volcanic material up to 58 km into the atmosphere, brought a nearly 15 m tsunami that crashed ashore, destroying villages, and created a sonic boom that rippled around the world – twice. 

Even one year on, interest in the extraordinary explosive eruption remains. A sound artist has recently recreated the sonification of the underwater volcanic eruption using rayleigh signal intensity data provided by the Aeolus Virtual Research Environment platform.

Using wind data obtained on one of its overpasses over the ash cloud of the Hunga Tonga explosion, Jamie Perera used an audio sample of one of the shock waves, time-stretched it into a ghostly tone, and assigned it to harmonic values transcribed from 90 Aeolus readings taken over a duration of approximately 15 minutes. 
The listener hears one reading every two seconds, in a harmonic range that spans six piano octaves, the highest of which can be heard at around 01:18 minutes when the readings show the eruption’s dust plume at its highest peak (over 20.5 km). The artistic intention behind the sonification was to evoke the otherworldly landscape of Hunga Tonga and other volcanoes. 

Sonification credit/copyright: @jamieperera (2023). Used by permission. Data and guidance provided by Daniel Santillan. Thanks to Peter Bickerton and Jemma Foster. Originally created as part of Wild Alchemy Journal - Air Edition - Aeolus

Sound of the Hunga Tonga Volcanic Eruption

Listen to the eerie sound of a boom on board ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft deploying in space during commissioning of the spacecraft in May 2023.

 

Tip: use headphones or surround speakers for the best experience – the forward and backward wobbles of the boom come through the left and right channels.

 

The vibration signal used to create the sound came from the accelerometer on board the main body of the spacecraft, which was switched on to monitor the reaction of the spacecraft to the boom’s deployment.

 

The larger the vibration measured by the accelerometer, the louder the sound in the sonification. We can imagine the boom like a human arm initially folded into the body; the first higher-pitched ‘ring’ that you hear is the elbow opening and the second lower-pitched ring is the shoulder stretching up.

 

Though the accelerometer measurements were not mandatory to validate the deployment, the engineers working on Juice were happy to see that they are very accurate. Turning the vibration signal into sound may help us understand the mechanics of the deployment.

 

The boom is one of four 'Langmuir probes' that are part of Juice's Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation experiment. These probes will provide crucial information on the electric fields and plasma environment around Jupiter's moons.

 

The sonification was prepared by Johannes Z. D. Mieth (TU Braunschweig) and Willi Exner (ESA).

 

#ESAJuice #Jupiter #ESA #EuropeanSpaceAgency

Sound of a Juice boom deploying

ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite was launched in August 2018 on a trailblazing mission to show how profiling Earth’s winds from space can improve weather forecasts and climate models. Marking the end of Aeolus’ remarkable mission, ESA worked with composer Jamie Perera to create a woodwind piece from data that spanned the lifetime of the satellite’s life in orbit around Earth.

In the resulting orchestral piece, every second is a day in the life of Aeolus, with data represented by the following instruments: 
Piccolo: Rayleigh Top Altitude (the tops of clouds)  
Flute: Rayleigh Observation Type (density of clouds)
Oboe: Rayleigh Reference Temperature (wind temperature)
Clarinet 1: Rayleigh Wind Velocity (wind velocity)
Clarinet 2: Rayleigh Wind Reference Pressure (air pressure)  
Bassoon/Bass Clarinet: Rayleigh Bottom Altitude (Earth’s surface)
Ambient Synth: Validity Flag 0 (Aeolus downtime)
You can also hear landmark events such as volcanic eruptions represented by drums, hurricanes represented by wind sound effects, and the Coronavirus pandemic represented by a pulsing synth. 

Read the full story:
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Aeolus/The_sound_of_Aeolus_will_blow_you_away

Download the full performance guide:
https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/EarthObservation/Life-of-Aeolus-Performance-Guide.pdf

Credits: @jamieperera (2023). Used by permission. Data and guidance provided by Daniel Santillan; sonification programming by Adrian Lewis

The sound of the wind from space

UPDATE (20 Aug 2015): What made the comet sing? Scientists working on Rosetta's RPC instrument have found out why 67P/C-G was singing. Via http://wp.me/p46DHN-1nN
==
ORIGINAL Citation (Oct 2014): Rosetta’s Plasma Consortium (RPC) has uncovered a mysterious ‘song’ that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is singing into space. The comet seems to be emitting a ‘song’ in the form of oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet’s environment. It is being sung at 40-50 millihertz, far below human hearing, which typically picks up sound between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. To make the music audible to the human ear, the frequencies have been increased in this recording. This sonification of the RPC-Mag data was compiled by German composer Manuel Senfft (www.tagirijus.de).  Read full details in ESA's Rosetta blog: http://wp.me/p46DHN-Li 

Copyright Notice

Original Data Credit: ESA/Rosetta/RPC/RPC-MAG
Sonification: TU Braunschweig/IGEP/Manuel Senfft, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Thumbnail image credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

A Singing Comet

Sensors in the feet of Rosetta’s lander Philae have recorded the sound of touchdown as it first came into contact with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The instrument, SESAME-CASSE, was turned on during the descent and clearly registered the first touchdown as Philae came into contact with the comet, in the form of vibrations detected in the soles of the lander’s feet. 

Technical note: This is the actual sound file; i.e. it is a recording of mechanical vibrations at acoustic frequencies. No modification was necessary except for some technical adjustments (e.g. the .wav format requires amplitude normalization). Actual frequency content and duration are unchanged.

Read full details in ESA's Rosetta blog: http://wp.me/p46DHN-Sr

CREDIT: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/SESAME/DLR (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0) 

This soundfile is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence. The user is allowed to reproduce, distribute, adapt, translate and publicly perform this publication, without explicit permission, provided that the content is accompanied by an acknowledgement that the source is credited as 'ESA/Rosetta/Philae/SESAME/DLR', a direct link to the licence text is provided and that it is clearly indicated if changes were made to the original content. Adaptation/translation/derivatives must be distributed under the same licence terms as this publication. To view a copy of this license, please visit: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

Thumbnail image credit: ESA/ATG medialab 
Audio file credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/SESAME/DLR





Philae touchdown makes a thud

Proba-3 RollCall

The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission has been keeping a close eye on the Sun for more than three years, witnessing it becoming increasingly active as it approaches the peak in the 11-year solar cycle. This audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun.   

This audio is a sonification based on the detected flares (metallic clinks) and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun (background hum).

Sound design: Klaus Nielsen (@maplepools) 
Image: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team 
Watch the video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2024/12/See_and_hear_three_years_of_solar_fireworks  

Hear three years of solar fireworks

Ever wonder how the International Space Station alarms sounds? This emergency alert is the last thing astronauts on the ISS ever want to hear as they work 400 km above Earth in the vacuum of space.   
 
This sound was sent to us by the Columbus Control Centre, near München, Germany, the operations centre for ESA astronauts and the Columbus laboratory, part of the orbiting weightless research centre.

The alarm is sounded on the International Space Station to alert astronauts to life-threatening emergencies such as loss of pressure or fire. The astronauts would immediately convene near their Soyuz spacecraft that serve as lifeboats, but these kind of emergencies are extremely rare and the alarm has sounded only a handful of times despite the Space Station having been inhabited since 2000. 

Most astronauts on a six-month space flight will only ever hear the sound during a practice session.

Regular 'fire-drills' are performed to make sure that even in a worst-case scenario everybody knows what to do. Mission controllers from the international partners that run the Space Station in Russia, USA, Europe and Japan re-enact scenarios with the astronauts in space. In critical situations the teams on ground need to communicate efficiently, act quickly and coordinate a solution between each other and the astronauts flying 400 km above them.

Image credit: ESA/NASA

Audio credit: ESA, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 
http://www.esa.int/Services/Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_IGO_CC_BY-SA_3.0_IGO_Licence

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

International Space Station siren

Listen to the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft as it flew past Mercury on 8 January 2025. This sixth and final flyby used the little planet's gravity to steer the spacecraft on course for entering orbit around Mercury in 2026. 

What you can hear in the sonification soundtrack of this video are real spacecraft vibrations measured by the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) instrument. The accelerometer data have been shifted in frequency to make them audible to human ears – one hour of measurements have been sped up to around one minute of sound.  

Sonification by Carmelo Magnafico (IAPS/INAF).

Watch the video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/01/The_sounds_of_BepiColombo_s_sixth_flight_past_Mercury

The sounds of BepiColombo’s sixth flight past Mercury

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, part of the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, will monitor air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer. The mission will be able to provide hourly observations, in a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space.


Giorgio Bagnasco, ESA's Sentinel-4 Project Manager

How will Copernicus Sentinel-4 improve air quality data?

How will data from Sentinel-4 be used in practical applications?

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, part of the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, will monitor air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer. The mission will be able to provide hourly observations, in a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space.


Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

What is the role of the Copernicus Sentinel-4 spectrometer?

Launched in May 2024, ESA’s Earth Explorer EarthCARE mission has already been delivering remarkable data. Its four instruments have brought us groundbreaking insights into clouds, aerosols and Earth’s energy balance. The mission is being featured in an immersive installation called Hakuryu, which is Japanese for White Dragon, at the Living Planet Symposium in Vienna and here’s the accompanying sonification of atmospheric data downloaded from the EarthCARE satellite.

EarthCARE data transformed into a dragon’s song for peace

Every day, the Sun sends out bursts of energetic electrons into space. As these electrons collide with other charged particles, they produce radio waves—captured by the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument on ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

This track is a sonification of one six-hour data segment from a five-year dataset compiled by a team at Radboud University and Paris Observatory. Each drop in pitch represents electrons travelling further from the Sun, where fewer particles are left to interact with—causing the radio frequency (and now sound) to drop.

Listen for the distinctive “pyoong” sounds—real solar radio bursts, each starting sharp and fading low. The data has been sped up for your ears; that dramatic burst at the centre? It lasted three hours in space.

Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/RPW, sonification by Katerina Pesini
Acknowledgements: Philippe Zarka (IDL script), Alan Loh (Python script), Dimosthenis Bitzilos (video editing support)

Sound of a Solar Storm: Radio Bursts from the Sun

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield.

Missions notes episode 1: The story of Cluster, with co-director Ryan MackFall of Crashburn Studios and Cluster veteran Gill Watson of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory on the unique challenges and opportunities of telling a story of this kind.

See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency

Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Missions notes episode 1: The story of Cluster

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield.

Missions notes episode 2: The science of Cluster, with Science Operations Support scientist Matt Taylor and Lucile Turc of the University of Helsinki. We explore the world of heliophysics and Cluster’s contributions to this burgeoning field of study.

See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency

Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Missions notes episode 2: The science of Cluster

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield.

Missions notes episode 3: The sounds of Cluster, with Seas of the Sun composer Karlotta Skagfield and data sonification contributors Klaus Nielsen (Maplepools) and Shane Embury (Napalm Death) who used science data to create a unique interpretation of the data that Cluster produced.

See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency

Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Missions notes episode 3: The sounds of Cluster

The pre-launch roll call for the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite at ESA's ESOC mission control centre

Sentinel-1D RollCall

The pre-launch roll call for the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-6B satellite at ESA's ESOC mission control centre

Copernicus Sentinel-6B RollCall

Ever wonder how the International Space Station alarms sound? This warning alert is sounded whenever an anomaly is detected that is not life-threatening but does require immediate action.

These require an immediate response because an important component of the Space Station has a problem. These are also marked in red and the alarm is designed to attract attention. Based on the error code that is displayed, the astronauts and control centres can quickly reach for the appropriate procedure to follow as a first response to warnings.

This sound was sent to us by the Columbus Control Centre near, München, Germany, the operations centre for ESA astronauts and the Columbus laboratory, part of the orbiting weightless research centre.

Image credit: ESA/NASA

Audio credit: ESA, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 
http://www.esa.int/Services/Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_IGO_CC_BY-SA_3.0_IGO_Licence

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ 

International Space Station warning alarm

History changed on 4 October 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm across), weighed only 83.6 kg and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the US-USSR space race.

This audio file is a recording of the telemetry signals transmitted by Sputnik from orbit - the first artificial signals ever delivered from space. Text credit: NASA (https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/)

Image, audio credit: NASA CC BY-NC-SA

Sputnik 1957 - history's first artificial signals from space

ESA Director General Jan Wörner and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sit down with hosts Ally Koehler and Stephen Ennis to talk about collaboration and the future of space exploration – including a new space station around the Moon. This episode was recorded just ahead of the 20 year anniversary of humans living and working on the International Space Station on 2 November 2020. 

Please note, there are some issues with audio quality due to the nature of recording remotely during a pandemic. We hope these don't detract from your listening experience. Enjoy!

ESA Explores

ESA Explores bonus: agency heads look #ForwardtoTheMoon

Official SoundCloud channel of ESA - the European Space Agency. Most (not all) audio content here is licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0. Please check individual credits to be certain. Can't find a track? Our channel used to be http://www.soundcloud.com/esaops - but not anymore. Try searching here for the track name or using keywords instead.

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