The Sounds Of Space Near Jupiter

Kumba writes "Found this while perusing NASA's Web site. It's an audio clip produced from radio waves detected near Jupiter by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and converted to audible sound by some scientists at the University of Iowa. A clip that they had last week was described by the Los Angeles Times as sounding "like a troop of howler monkeys battling underwater." The new audio clip is....difficult to describe in my opinion. I guess it's best left to each listener to determine what it sounds like, but if you've ever wondered what it sounds like out there, this is it." I had a set of five CDs a while back that had collections of sounds made from one of the NASA missions - it was called Sounds of Space or the Universe. Pretty interesting set - but then, of course, like most of my possessions it burned in a house fire and I've been unable to find it since then.

Comments

I've translated the radio waves

[typical geek]

They sound kind of like this;

na-fa-lo-ba-nu-ki-li ta-la-ba-ba-fa-to-pu
ro-lu-fa-ti

Anyone know where I can get a surplus aircraft carrier?

GOD IS ALIVE!!!!

[fluxrad]

and aparently he rides a really rusty trike.


FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

What is sounds like out there

[Ace905]

"if you've ever wondered what it sounds like out there, this is it."

I'm sure people are going to mention this, so I thought I'd be first;

There is *no* sound in space. None at all.

I'm not saying that these audio clips are not interesting, or that they don't necessarily contain some sort of useful data. But the fulfillment factor in listening to these should be the same as looking at a graph of x vs. y; because if you think about it, way out in the cold depths of space, your ears do not pick up sound because there is no medium to transfer sound.

What's more is, were a small event to occur which normally should be heard here on earth, ie; two small rocks colaid; you wouldn't hear that either, because these are radio waves. Larger events, you can hear, but they are a reflection of things you do not see or relate to properly, since once again, these are radio waves and not vibrational waves caused by friction.

My point is, don't believe the hype: when people tell you it's possible to get a CD of sounds from space, what you're really getting is a small selection of the huge radio-spectrum converted to screechy, unintelligible garble. For that matter, it is possible to give any radio signal a certain characteristic (ie: easy to listen to, noisy screeching) because you decide the method used to represent that wave as a sound wave; since they are wholly different.

Who's to say that these radio-waves to sound-waves you hear would even sound the same were another person to take the raw data and convert it to sound; they probably wouldn't. So really, you're hearing 1 person (or 1 small group of peoples) interpretation of data put to unintelligible garble.

I hate fads.

Re:What is sounds like out there

[KjetilK]

There is *no* sound in space. None at all.

Sure, there is! Sound is just pressure waves in gas, so if there is a gas, and there are waves in it, there is sound. The only place there is no sound at all, is if you've got a perfect vacuum, but I haven't seen a lot of those lately. ;-)

Now, audible sound is a completely different matter. :-)

I'm not quite sure what these guys have done. Apparently, they've converted radio waves, and you are right, it is not necessarily meaningful, and indeed in most cases it is completely meaningless, to convert radio waves (electromagnetic radiation) to sound waves (pressure waves in gas) and call it the "Sound of Space". If it had been gravtiational radiation, it would have been more fun.

It could be meaningful (at least a bit), if the radio waves had been created by some pressure waves in gas, so that the radio waves resemble the original pressure waves, and many such processes are imagineable.

Now this is far from clear to me from the link, but isn't this the case here: That the radio waves have been created by pressure waves in the plasma, and so when the radio waves are converted to sound, it shares characteristics with the original pressure waves? It might not be that bad.... :-)