NASA’s Webb Telescope uncovered two views of the Southern Ring Nebula – in near-infrared light (at left in the track image) and mid-infrared light (at right in the track image) – and each has been adapted to sound.

In this sonification, the colors in the images were mapped to pitches of sound – frequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound. Near-infrared light is represented by a higher range of frequencies at the beginning of the track. Mid-way through, the notes change, becoming lower overall to reflect that mid-infrared includes longer wavelengths of light.
 
Listen carefully at 15 seconds and 44 seconds. These notes align with the centers of the near- and mid-infrared images, where the stars at the center of the “action” appear. In the near-infrared image that begins the track, only one star is heard clearly, with a louder clang. 

In the second half of the track, listeners will hear a low note just before a higher note, which denotes that two stars were detected in mid-infrared light. The lower note represents the redder star that created this nebula, and the second is the star that appears brighter and larger.
 
Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound

Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Accessibility Production: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Kimberly Arcand (CXC/SAO), Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), and Christine Malec (consultant).

Webb’s Southern Ring Nebula Sonification

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 June 10-11, 2009, whistle sounds are repeatedly heard over ambient background whooshes and crunches and a few high-pitch chirps. 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, which has longer magnetic strings and lower pitches farther away from Earth. The high-pitch chirps are related to high-frequency plasma waves that are smaller than the harp waves yet can have an outsized impact on Earth’s radiation belts and space weather.

High-Pitch Chirps and Earth’s Magnetic Harp

Kepler: Star KIC12268220C Light Curve Waves to Sound

Dark Star

Excerpt from the CD album 'In Sadness, Silence and Solitude' (original 1997/ remastered 2006).

The Well of Sadness

Hear intriguing radio waves that our Cassini spacecraft collected near Jupiter in January 2001.

Jupiter Sounds 2001

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

From "We Can Sleep Now", available on cassette and digital from Unifactor:
https://unifactor.bandcamp.com/album/we-can-sleep-now

The Mountain (cassette out now on Unifactor)

Edward Artemyev - Soundtracks To Andrey Tarkovsky's 'zerkalo' And 'stalker

Edward Artemyev - Stalker

Offered as metaphor and delivered as analogy...

The Blizzard That Birthed Her is the continuing echo of this year’s Home Normal success, Book Of The Folded Forest. Birthed as two original Orla Wren tracks ‘Five Acre Ladder’ and ‘Mountains And Wishbones’ which were recorded in the same session, Tui then worked the cello, bass and vo- cals of Aaron Martin into two alternative versions of each track, making up the 4 tracks on the 10” vinyl for Facture.

He then offered the same to Isnaj Dui who contributed some flute for him to then create the two versions with her as guest. To complete the companion 8 track letter pressed CD version the two "reprise" versions were created by Tui utilizing parts from the other tracks.

Mastered precisely by James Plotkin, the project is released as a limited edition run of 300 copies designed by Daniel Crossley; 4 track 10” vinyl on reverse board heavy card with printed inner sleeves with designs by Montreal designer Urban9, download code, 8 track
4-panel letter pressed CDs with wrap-around letter pressed bands, 4 prints resting inside typed/ numbered glassine photo bags, 2 x double sided prints, pressed flowers, all resting inside large scented letter pressed envelopes with beautiful artwork again by Urban9.

To accompany the album an exclusive promo film was made for the track Five Acre Ladder (re- prise) by Lumacell. And a very special exclusive bonus track The Cup Of Remembered Things is also included as a free download.

A returned honour of growth and loss, this album complements her predecessor as an expressive companion piece requiring little explanation.

Release Date: 01.12.13

www.fac-ture.co.uk
www.orlawren.eu

Orla Wren - Five Acre Ladder ( Reprise )

Written and Produced by Agustín Mena
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio (NY)
Photography by Alexander Kopatz
www.go70north.com
ARCHIVES71 // ARCHIVESCD52
Archives | 2021

Buy 12"/CD/Dig

Warmth - The Infinite

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.

Kepler: Star KIC12268220C Light Curve Waves to Sound

NASA

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