Top 50: Science

Morning rainforest sounds, about a month before the wet season was due to arrive, at Lacey Creek near Mission Beach, far north Queensland

Rainforest sounds near Mission Beach, Queensland

Courtesty of Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS)aboard NASA’s Van Allen Probes team at the University of Iowa

Chorus Radio Waves within Earth's Atmosphere

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which were monitored by our Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights. This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn.

Cassini: Saturn Radio Emissions #1

Kepler: Star KIC12268220C Light Curve Waves to Sound

Kepler: Star KIC7671081B Light Curve Waves to Sound

Stardust: Passing Comet Tempel 1

Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the vibrations of dense interstellar plasma, or ionized gas, from October to November 2012 and April to May 2013. This sound reproduces the amplitude and frequency of the plasma waves as "heard" by Voyager 1.

Voyager: Interstellar Plasma Sounds

Voyager: Lightning on Jupiter

Cassini: Saturn Radio Emissions #2

Solfeggio frequencies recorded on the morning of the winter solstice copyright Tai Inoue at Nature Sounds 2011 

Windy Winter Solstice - Lakefield National Park, Cape York

Juno will improve our understanding of the solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.

Juno: Entering Jupiter's Magnetosphere

Juno: Crossing Jupiter's Bow Shock

Plasmaspheric hiss waves as heard by NASA’s Polar mission as it passed around Earth.

Credits: NASA/University of Iowa

Plasmaspheric Hiss

And beware the weird radio emissions Galileo gathered from Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede.

Beware of Jupiter’s Largest Moon Ganymede

Before settling into orbit around Saturn, Cassini faced a white-knuckle ride through the plane of the planet’s rings. When converted into an audio file, the interstellar cacophony is reminiscent of a hellstorm on Earth.

Cassini Shields Up

These melodious tones are created at a special frequency in a plasma with a magnetic field. The frequency is set by the number of electrons in a given volume (the electron density) and the strength of the magnetic field. Hence, the frequency of these waves, called upper hybrid waves, can provide a very accurate measure of the density of the plasma; a fundamental property of the Jovian environment of interest to scientists. These emissions were acquired by Voyager 2 as it passed through the outer magnetosphere in 1979.

Voyager Plasma Sounds

New research from the up-close Grand Finale orbits of NASA’s Cassini mission shows a surprisingly powerful interaction of plasma waves moving from Saturn to its moon Enceladus. Researchers converted the recording of plasma waves into a “whooshing” audio file that we can hear -- in the same way a radio translates electromagnetic waves into music. Much like air or water, plasma (the fourth state of matter) generates waves to carry energy. The recording was captured by the Radio Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument Sept. 2, 2017, two weeks before Cassini was deliberately plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn. 

For more information, visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa

Sounds of Saturn: Hear Radio Emissions of the Planet and Its Moon Enceladus

The Stanford Experimental Physics Lab sonified data from the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). This humming sound captures the Sun’s natural vibrations and provides scientists with a concrete representation of its dynamic movements.

For more solar sounds, visit: http://soi.stanford.edu/results/sounds.html

Sun Sonification

Listen to data from the air pressure sensor on NASA's InSight lander, indicating wind blowing by on Mars. The data were sped up by a factor of 100, shortening the duration of the recording and shifting it up in frequency 100 times (a little more than six octaves). 
 
JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
 
For more information on the InSight mission, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/insight
 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/Cornell

Sounds from InSight's Pressure Sensor on Mars

For Episode 105, Laura Shaw, the International Space Station Program Lead for Exploration Life Support Systems, discusses the systems on the station that create a livable and comfortable space for astronauts and cosmonauts. Shaw describes how improving these systems will be critical for exploring the Moon and Mars.

Top 50: Science

Iceman