Friday, February 15, 2008

The Sounds of Jupiter



One aspect of NASA's planetary research we haven't touched on is their space sound recordings. This video features "sounds" from Jupiter recorded by special instrumentation aboard Voyager. Electromagnetic vibrations from solar winds and charged particles in Jupiter's magnetosphere were collected and converted to sounds within the range of human hearing.

What do you think of Jupiter's song? Is it eerie or soothing? Or both, somehow? I find it to be an dense, alien language, created by ancient and ongoing processes that are shrouded in mystery and exist beyond the scope of human activity or influence. But let's give credit to the Voyager team, whose ingenuity brought us this strange, otherworldly song.

For a complete list of NASA's space sound recordings, follow this link.