The vacuum of space is supposed to be silent. There, where the atoms are too far apart to propagate sound waves, any sound is silenced before it begins.
But this does not mean that no sound can be extracted. In fact, if we could just hear it, some solar system objects would emit a deafening noise. Plasma waves can also be diverted around.
Plasma waves are formed when electrons become trapped in magnetic field lines around large objects such as planets, and move downward in a spiral.
If we convert the plasma wave frequencies into sound, we can hear their “terrifying screams.”
For example, the Sun must be positively waning as its surface oscillates with convection cells constantly rising and falling.
NASA Just Released Haunting Recordings From The Solar System https://t.co/1kkbwkLXk8
— ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) November 1, 2023
Scientists estimated that if sound could spread through space, we could hear the sound of the sun as a continuous roar with a strength of 100 decibels.
The first sounds from space were recorded by astronomer Karl Goethe Jansky in 1932, when he built a rotating radio telescope called Jansky’s Merry-Go-Round, which is designed to detect a specific frequency range of radio waves.
As his data began to arrive, a persistent “hissing” appeared in the background, which Yansky discovered was not random noise, but the sound of the heart of the Milky Way itself.
When we started sending probes into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, we started to get more data.
The equipment used includes instruments designed to capture invisible forms of light, as well as plasma waves in the sometimes chaotic environments around the planets of the solar system.
Radio waves are not sound, they are a form of light in which audio data can be encoded and, when picked up by a receiver, converted back into sound.
Plasma waves orbiting planets can also generate interesting chirps and whistles known as “choruses.”
The sound of the earth can sound like the sound of birds or whales. Saturn, with its complex system of moons and rings, sounds like a soundtrack from a weird science fiction movie from the 1950s. Even Jupiter’s moons have their own complex sound files.
NASA has compiled a collection of its audio, in a playlist that you can listen to on the NASA Science website.
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