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Two spacecraft passed Venus at almost the same time this week, and every now and then we’re getting more data from this rare ‘near-encounter’. The research teams even translated some of this data into sounds, which you can listen to below.
BepiColombo is a joint mission to Mercury by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), and Solar Orbiter is a joint mission between ESA and NASA. None of the missions are focused on Venus; both spacecraft needed the planet for gravity to help put them on the correct trajectories to reach their final destinations. But the teams didn’t want to miss the opportunity to observe Venus up close, as detailed in a recent ESA blog post.
A first image of Venus made by BepiColombo arrived on Earth a few days ago. O Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) aboard the spacecraft recorded the acceleration of the ship as Venus rotated it. Since then, the research team working on this instrument has translated the acceleration data into audible frequencies, so that we can really hear the transit of Venus captured by the BepiColombo. Check out:
The audio sounds a bit like reverberations through a hollow tube. According to release from ESA, some noises here and there can be attributed to how Venus’ gravity affected the spacecraft and how BepiColombo reacted to temperature increases as it passed through the planet – the temperature rose by about 110º C.
The teams were also able to translate fluctuations in Venus’ magnetic field into sound, using the magnetometers aboard both spacecraft. In the audio below, you can hear how the solar wind interacts with the planet.
This data looks a little more static, but the frequency changes as BepiColombo moves to where the magnetosphere – outer region of the atmosphere – of Venus and the solar wind meet (0:18 in the video). ESA said that next week, it will present a more detailed analysis of the data collected by both spacecraft.
The Solar Orbiter had a dramatic vision of the shine of the planet, as you can see here:
The Solar Orbiter will continue to routinely oscillate beyond Venus as it walks between the planet and the Sun, collecting data on our star’s activity over the 11-year solar cycle. The orbiter will fly to Earth on November 27, the last time it will pass our light blue dot.
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