This recording was made by the SuperCam instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Feb. 19, 2021, just about 18 hours after landing on the mission’s first sol or Martian day. The rover’s mast, holding the microphone, was still stowed on Perseverance’s deck, and so the sound is muffled, a little like the sound one hears listening to a seashell or having a hand cupped over the ear. Just a little wind can be heard.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/ISAE-Supaero

First Audio Recording of Sounds on Mars

Listen to 16 minutes of raw, unfiltered sounds of the Perseverance Mars rover traveling in Jezero Crater. The noise generated by the interaction of the rover’s wheels and suspension with the surface can be heard, along with a high-pitched scratching noise. Perseverance’s engineering team continues to evaluate the source of the scratching noise, which may either be electromagnetic interference from one of the rover’s electronics boxes or interactions between the rover mobility system and the Martian surface. The entry, descent, and landing microphone was not intended for surface operations and had limited testing in this configuration before launch.
 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – Sol 16 (16 minutes)

NASA engineers combined three segments from the raw audio file recorded while the Perseverance Mars rover rolled across a section of Jezero Crater on sol 16 of the mission. Sections 0:20-0:45, 6:40-7:10, and 14:30-15:00 were combined into this 90-second highlight clip. There has been processing and editing to filter out some of the noise.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – Sol 16 (90-second highlights)

Messier 51 (M51) is perhaps better known by its nickname, the Whirlpool Galaxy because its face-on orientation to us highlights its winding spiral arms. This gives our telescopes a different perspective on a spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way, whose structure we cannot observe directly since we’re inside it. The sonification tracks along a line emanating from the galaxy's core to the edge of the image and scanning clockwise. 

The light encountered by this line has been mapped to the notes of a melodic minor scale. Each of the four types of light captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and Chandra X-ray Observatory has their own unique frequency range. At wavelengths where the spiral arms are prominent, the pitch creeps upward as the spiral extends farther from the core. The bright core, which harbors a supermassive black hole, produces a constant low hum punctuated by short sounds from compact bright sources within the galaxy. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan Univ./R.Kilgard et al; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith & Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Univ. of AZ/R. Kennicutt; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

M51 Sonification

Messier 51 (M51) is perhaps better known by its nickname of the Whirlpool Galaxy because its face-on orientation to Earth reveals its wound-up spiral arms. This gives telescopes here a view of another spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way, whose structure we cannot observe directly from our position within it. The sonification tracks along a line emanating from the galaxy's core to the edge of the image and scanning clockwise. The light encountered by this line has been mapped to the notes of a melodic minor scale. The sequence represents X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The bright core, which harbors a supermassive black hole, produces a constant low hum punctuated by short sounds from compact bright sources within the galaxy, including many stellar-sized black holes. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan Univ./R.Kilgard et al; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

M51 X-ray Sonification

First Woman tells the tale of Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon. While Callie is a fictional character, the first female astronaut and person of color will soon set foot on the Moon – a historic milestone and part of upcoming NASA missions. 

Issue No. 1: Dream to Reality follows Callie's trailblazing path as she and her robot sidekick, RT, overcome setbacks, disappointment, and tragedy along the way. From her childhood dreams of space travel to being selected as an astronaut candidate, Callie takes us on her journey to the Moon.

More: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/calliefirst

First Woman Issue No. 1: Dream to Reality

Listen to the rhythms of the pulsating red giant star called 74 Draconis based on brightness measurements from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Just below the surfaces of these stars, hot gas rises, cools, and then sinks, where it heats up again, much like a pan of boiling water on a hot stove. This motion produces waves of changing pressure – sound waves. The interaction of these waves results in orderly motion called standing waves that create measurable changes in the star’s brightness. Larger stars produce longer oscillations and thus have deeper tones. To produce audible tones, astronomers multiplied its oscillation frequency by 3 million times. (Credit: NASA/MIT/TESS and Ethan Kruse (USRA), M. Hon et al., 2021)

Red Giant Star 74 Draconis Pulsation

Listen to the rhythms of the pulsating red giant star called Edasich based on brightness measurements from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Just below the surfaces of these stars, hot gas rises, cools, and then sinks, where it heats up again, much like a pan of boiling water on a hot stove. This motion produces waves of changing pressure – sound waves. The interaction of these waves results in orderly motion called standing waves that create measurable changes in the star’s brightness. Larger stars produce longer oscillations and thus have deeper tones. To produce audible tones, astronomers multiplied its oscillation frequency by 3 million times. (Credit: NASA/MIT/TESS and Ethan Kruse (USRA), M. Hon et al., 2021)

Red Giant Star Edasich Pulsations

When a star like the Sun begins to run out of helium to burn, it will blow off huge clouds of gas and dust. These outbursts can form spectacular structures such as the one seen in the Cat's Eye nebula. This image of the Cat's Eye contains both X-rays from Chandra around the center and visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which show the series of bubbles expelled by the star over time. To listen to these data, there is a radar-like scan that moves clockwise emanating from the center point to produce pitch. Light that is further from the center is heard as higher pitches while brighter light is louder. The X-rays are represented by a harsher sound, while the visible light data sound smoother. The circular rings create a constant hum, interrupted by a few sounds from spokes in the data. The rising and falling pitches that can be heard are due to the radar scan passing across the shells and jets in the nebula.  (Credit: NASA/CXC/K. Arcand and SYSTEM Sound/M. Russo & A. Santaguida, 2021)

Cat's Eye Nebula Sonification

NASA's Marc Rayman discusses the legacy of the Dawn mission to the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt.

Small Steps, Giant Leaps Podcast

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Episode 72, Dawn Mission

On Episode 220, CJ Scott details the WB-57 aircraft, the unique imaging systems on board, and the teams that support operations.

High Flying

On Episode 221, Mark Matney and Jim Cooney describe the science of orbital debris and the details behind the shielding and avoidance maneuvers of the International Space Station.

Orbital Debris

NASA is preparing to launch the largest and most powerful space telescope ever constructed. Join us for a special James Webb Space Telescope mini-series as we explore the science, engineering, people, and launch of this historic mission.

Listen to NASA's Curious Universe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

NASA's Curious Universe: Introducing the Webb Space Telescope Mini-Series

James Webb Space Telescope Program Director Greg Robinson discusses NASA's largest and most powerful space science telescope ever constructed.

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Episode 73, James Webb Space Telescope

A spacecraft is about to begin its journey to crash into an asteroid on purpose. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission, or DART, will deliberately impact a small asteroid called Dimorphos to deflect its orbit around a bigger object, Didymos. While this system presents no danger to Earth, an asteroid the size of Dimorphos would cause regional devastation if it hit our planet. DART will demonstrate a potential method of protecting Earth from hazards in the future. Nancy Chabot, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has the details. She also discusses searching for meteorites in Antarctica and discovering the secrets of planet Mercury.

Gravity Assist: How to Move an Asteroid, with Nancy Chabot

On Episode 222, Mandy Cady previews the latest science aboard the International Space Station and describes her role in coordinating hundreds of investigations performed in orbit.

Station Science 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope is going to open a brand new window into the universe. It will show us stars, galaxies, planets, and other objects as we have never seen them before. In the first of four episodes of our mini-series, we focus on all of the great science that Webb will do.

Listen to NASA's Curious Universe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Webb Space Telescope: Into The Unknown

Webb is preparing for a million-mile journey to its lookout point over the universe. Engineers have been hard at work designing, installing, and testing the world’s next discovery machine that will change astronomy for years to come. Join Kenneth Harris, Joe Sprofera, and Rene Doyon as they explain what it took to engineer Webb.

Webb Space Telescope: Building The Next Discovery Machine

NASA's Les Johnson discusses solar sail propulsion and the upcoming Near-Earth Asteroid Scout and Solar Cruiser missions.

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Episode 74, Solar Sails

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

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

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: 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

Original space audio recordings provided courtesy of NASA and The University of Iowa. https://space-audio.org/

Juno: Jupiter’s Auroras

Jupiter Orbit 1

Juno: Musical Tones from Jupiter Waves Perijove 4

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, M. Russo & A. Santaguida

Chandra X-ray Observatory: Cassiopeia A Blast Wave High Energy

Chandra X-ray Observatory: M16 Xray

Chandra X-ray Observatory: Galactic Sonification

This set of sounds from the surface of Mars were recorded by the microphone on the side of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on February 20, 2021. In the first set, sounds from the rover itself dominate. In the second set, the sound was filtered to make sounds from Mars more audible. You can hear a little wind in the second set. 
 
This is the first time a Mars rover has been equipped with a microphone. The images in this video were taken by Perseverance's Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, on the same day as the microphone sounds, Feb. 20, 2021.
 
For more information about Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance
 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sounds From Mars: Filters Out Rover Self-Noise

Sounds From Mars: Includes Rover Self-Noise

Hello, we’re NASA. You may have seen our astronauts, rocket launches, or Mars rovers — but have you heard our sounds? From long form 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.

Popular tracks by NASA