Top 50: Science

From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.

Houston We Have a Podcast

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

On Episode 273, hear from a NASA engineer who describes the future spacecraft design needed to transport humans between Earth and Mars. This is the fourth episode in a reboot of our series about a human mission to Mars.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Mars Ep. 4: Deep Space Transport

On Episode 274, hear from a scientist who describes the complexities and innovative strategies needed to pack for a human mission to Mars. This is the fifth episode in a reboot of our series about a human mission to Mars.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Mars Ep. 5: Packing for Mars

The melodious song of a Blackcap is heard in a glade of Birch woodland in Sweden

'Birch Wood' - album sample

Between Earth and the Sun, space is not truly empty but is filled with a soup of charged particles called plasma. This plasma comes from the Sun, pumped out in a steady stream called the solar wind and sporadically blasted away in explosive solar eruptions. When this solar plasma strikes Earth, it causes the magnetic field lines and plasma around Earth to vibrate like the plucked strings of a harp, producing ultralow-frequency waves. 

In 2007, NASA launched five satellites to fly through Earth’s magnetic “harp” – its magnetosphere – as part of the THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms). Since then, THEMIS has been gathering a bounty of information about plasma waves across Earth’s magnetosphere. 

The frequencies of the waves THEMIS measures are too low for our ears to hear, however. So a NASA citizen science project called HARP – or Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas – has sped up the waves recorded by THEMIS to convert them to sound waves.

In this clip from February 21-22, 2012, whistle sounds are repeatedly heard over ambient background whooshes and crunches. The whistles decrease and increase in pitch as a THEMIS spacecraft moves toward and away from Earth on one orbit, with a maximum altitude of about 50,000 miles. These sounds are related to Earth’s magnetic harp, which has longer magnetic strings and lower pitches farther away from Earth.

Earth’s Magnetic Harp

Between Earth and the Sun, space is not truly empty but is filled with a soup of charged particles called plasma. This plasma comes from the Sun, pumped out in a steady stream called the solar wind and sporadically blasted away in explosive solar eruptions. When this solar plasma strikes Earth, it causes the magnetic field lines and plasma around Earth to vibrate like the plucked strings of a harp, producing ultralow-frequency waves.

In 2007, NASA launched five satellites to fly through Earth’s magnetic “harp” – its magnetosphere – as part of the THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms). Since then, THEMIS has been gathering a bounty of information about plasma waves across Earth’s magnetosphere. 

The frequencies of the waves THEMIS measures are too low for our ears to hear, however. So a NASA citizen science project called HARP – or Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas – has sped up the waves recorded by THEMIS to convert them to sound waves.

In this clip from March 19-20, 2012, whistle sounds are repeatedly heard over ambient background whooshes and crunches. The whistles change in pitch as a THEMIS spacecraft moves toward and away from Earth on one orbit, with a maximum altitude of about 50,000 miles. These sounds are related to Earth’s magnetic harp. We normally expect the whistles to have lower pitches farther away from Earth where the harp strings are longer, but the first part of this clip goes against this trend: the pitch increases or stays the same as the satellite moves away from Earth. 

 Thanks to volunteers on the HARP project who uncovered this pattern, researchers are now able to study these unusual vibrations and their connection to space weather.

Earth’s Reverse Magnetospheric Harp

Between Earth and the Sun, space is not truly empty but is filled with a soup of charged particles called plasma. This plasma comes from the Sun, pumped out in a steady stream called the solar wind and sporadically blasted away in explosive solar eruptions. When this solar plasma strikes Earth, it causes the magnetic field lines and plasma around Earth to vibrate like the plucked strings of a harp, producing ultralow-frequency waves.

In 2007, NASA launched five satellites to fly through Earth’s magnetic “harp” – its magnetosphere – as part of the THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms). Since then, THEMIS has been gathering a bounty of information about plasma waves across Earth’s magnetosphere. 

The frequencies of the waves THEMIS measures are too low for our ears to hear, however. So a NASA citizen science project called HARP – or Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas – has sped up the waves recorded by THEMIS to convert them to sound waves.

In this clip from February 19-22, 2012, whistle sounds are repeatedly heard over ambient background whooshes and crunches. The whistles change in pitch as a THEMIS spacecraft moves toward and away from Earth on three orbits, with a maximum altitude of about 50,000 miles. These sounds are related to Earth’s magnetic harp, which has longer magnetic strings and lower pitches farther away from Earth. These three orbits happened when the solar wind was blowing past Earth at a speed of about 1,200,000 miles per hour, which is fast even by solar wind standards! There’s often more harp activity during fast solar wind conditions. The solar wind also causes many other types of magnetic vibrations, most of which sound like background whooshes and crunches.

Multiple Passes through the Magnetospheric Harp on February 19-22, 2012

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

	
On episode 394, NASA’s Artemis II Flight Director Jeff Radigan shares what it takes to lead the first human mission of the Artemis program around the Moon. 

Houston We Have A Podcast: Artemis II The Mission

On episode 395, USACE Chief Historian John Lonnquest shares the legacy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and their role in building NASA’s spaceflight infrastructure. 

Houston We Have A Podcast: Constructing NASA Infrastructure

On episode 396, NASA project scientists Maria Banks and Sue Lederer revisit recent Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions and discuss research on the Moon. 

Houston We Have a Podcast: Lunar Surface Research

Houston We Have a Podcast: The Art of Astronaut Photography

On episode 398, Chris Edelen, acting vehicle integration office manager for NASA’s Orion Program, discusses the spacecraft that will carry astronauts around the Moon on Artemis II.

Houston We Have A Podcast: Artemis II: The Orion Spacecraft

EnLIGHTenment - Ocean and Earth 2016.

Enlightenment is a multi channel 3D projection in response to the historical Cairns library and the natural environment so dominant in the far North. The project ran over two consecutive festivals and developed over this period combining digital video, 3D animation, projection mapping, photography and sound to create awe-inspiring 3D illusions, depicting some of the most distinctive aspects of the region’s wildlife, from giant barramundi to brilliant Ulysses butterflies.. The work draws upon distinctive natural elements relative to Cairns and this region, provides a moment of synergy between nature and architecture, The work includes a commissioned spoken word component by local writer Jessica Hart, responsive to the influences of place on our condition and referencing how inspirational the natural world can be in our pursuit of creativity, Knowledge and wisdom. The library is of cause an essential place to explore and share such ideas .The sound design included real recordings of local species to accompany the visuals

3 channel synchronised projection, 3d animation, stereo sound, Cairns city Library
Cairns festival, cairns, QLD, Australia
Visual artist – Craig Walsh
associated artist . Russell Miledge
Animator – Steven Thomasson
Sound design – Tai Inoue
Poetry/Spoken word – Jessica Hart
musical score – Robert Wilson

Video link - https://youtu.be/KdMqGMxL8U4

EnLIGHTenment - Ocean and Earth

This was an amazing close range encounter allowing me to captured a male Cassowary feeding with his two chicks. The high pitched whistle is the sounds of the chicks the low frequency thumping sound is the call of the male Cassowary. This is a low res preview of the recording, if you are interested in the full recording please contact me. I hope you enjoy this recording! Copyright Tai Inoue at Nature Sounds 2017

Cassowary - Casuarius casuarius (Dad and Chicks)

Hello, we’re NASA. You may have seen our astronauts, rocket launches, or Mars rovers — but have you heard our sounds? From interviews with astronauts and engineers to stories that take you on a tour of the galaxy, NASA’s audio offerings let you experience the thrill of space exploration without ever leaving Earth.