This Is What Saturn Sounds Like
Posted by Michael_Byrne on Thursday, Jan 05, 2012
I’d say some electronic music genius should do something way cool with this, but nah. Saturn doesn’t need a remix. What you’re hearing (below) are radio waves from said planet recorded by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, time compressed, and shifted down in frequency to an audible range.
From NASA:
The Cassini spacecraft began detecting these radio emissions in April 2002, when Cassini was 374 million kilometers (234 million miles) from the planet, using the Cassini radio and plasma wave science instrument. The radio and plasma wave instrument has now provided the first high resolution observations of these emissions, showing an amazing array of variations in frequency and time. The complex radio spectrum with rising and falling tones, is very similar to Earth’s auroral radio emissions. These structures indicate that there are numerous small radio sources moving along magnetic field lines threading the auroral region.
Indeed, this is precisely what I imagine being stranded on some icy moon with about 40 minutes of oxygen remaining in your suit and a broken landing module should sound like (compressed and pitched-down, anyhow).
Connections:
- Nine Inch Nails Make Spooky Footage Of Saturn Even Spookier
- Saturn Sings In Concert With Its Hypnotic Aurorae
- Language, Ancient Internets, and LSD: An Interview with Richard Doyle
- Boogey Down To The Sounds of This MS Paint .EXE File
Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.
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About the author
Michael covers physics, climate science, the future of music, and assorted things fallen through cracks at Motherboard. A native of Colorado, Michigan, and Oregon, he currently resides in Baltimore...
