solar

Soaring to the depths of our universe, gallant spacecraft roam the cosmos, snapping images of celestial wonders. Some spacecraft have instruments capable of capturing radio emissions. When scientists convert these to sound waves, the results are eerie to hear.

In time for Halloween, we've put together a compilation of elusive "sounds" of howling planets and whistling helium that is sure to make your skin crawl.

Spooky Sounds from Across the Solar System

One year and three trips around the Sun later, NASA's Parker Solar Probe heard some weird, sci-fi sounds from plasma within the solar wind -- and those sounds may answer unanswered questions about how the wind forms.

Sounds of the Solar Wind

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Space

soleil

SYSTÈME SOLAIRE

SOLEIL

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

Juno: Crossing Jupiter's Bow Shock

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

Parker Solar Probe - Whistler Mode Waves 2

Parker Solar Probe - Whistler Mode Waves 1

Parker Solar Probe - Langmuir Waves

Parker Solar Probe - Dispersive Chirping Waves 2

Parker Solar Probe - Dispersive Chirping Waves 1

Parker Solar Probe - Dust Impacts

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Parker Solar Probe - Whistler Mode Waves 1

Johns Hopkins APL