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Space Music
KeelSpawn writes "CNN is running an article about "sounds in outer space", which begins: "University of Iowa astrophysicist Donald Gurnett first heard the sounds on a spacecraft in 1962 and it reminded him of music. The sounds, which resemble whistles, bird chirps and booms, would not be heard by someone in space but are picked up by sensitive radio equipment. The sounds will be blended into a performance this autumn by the Kronos Quartet when they play at Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa in Iowa City." The U. of Iowa has a page about the concert.
no-one can hear you scream
Wouldn't it infringe on this? On the other hand, I think god can afford more lawyers than John Cage's music publishers.
Imagine that the only transmission from Earth that makes it to some alien civilization is this concert, and they disregard it as background noise.
Tragic.
- Adam
...The sounds, which resemble whistles, bird chirps and booms...
Sounds just like the latest "Chemical brothers" album...
And to think for years I thought the background noise of space was complete and total silence interspersed with Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz. Damn you, Stanley Kubrick!
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Anybody else think that 'Kronos Quartet' is a nod to Star Trek? I think Kronos is the Klingon homeworld.
*tries to imagine a Chemical Brothers style Klingon band*
"Derp de derp."
There is a scripture in the bible talking about how the heavens sing paises to God.
... that's right radio waves. We can't actually tune into them down here on earth(the atmospehe scatters the waves) but from what I've been told in space you can listen to it fairly well. Theres a fair bit of information about it. Different stars have different sounds some of it sounds sureal.
I never really understood what it ment until one day I found out that the stars actually make music. How? Well I assume you of you know that stars don't just release visable light they also release UV/IR and
Just thought I'd give a different prospective.
Nathaniel Brown
So if a tree falls and space, and no one is around to hear it... Does it make music?
For live sounds, check out NASA's Online VLF Receiver
These sounds were incorporated into a song by totally badass producer Si Begg:
S.I. Futures - Ionic Funk
our written thoughts are gifts to our future selves
Or those wanting to do mixes of their own: http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/~dag/sounds.html - the sounds page belonging to the professor who converted them to human audible... Please post mp3 conversions if you do any! Thanks
Ale
This song: 4 minutes (right ascension) and 33 light-seconds
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,
btw, IANAPhysicist... ^^;
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
She is the radio astrophysicist, who took radiowave data from UGC 6697 and turned it into music. She has a album of this music called Music From The Galaxies.
e renzi.html
She also sang two songs on Thomas Dolby's soundtrack to "The Gate to the Mind's Eye". (one of my fav soundtracks, and the best of the "Mind's Eye" series), The cuts are "Quantum Mechanic" and "N.E.O. (Near Earth Objects)".
You can check her music out at MP3.com, url:
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/164/dr_fiorella_t
And, to be a little "sexist" here, she is really hot! She also has her own website...URL:
http://www.fiorella.com/
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
So, looks like all you people who thought you were so smart when you would point out how that explosion from Star Trek shouldn't have made any sound suddenly have the tables turned on you. The sounds of the phasers and ships exploding were just being picked up by radio equipment invented way back in the 21st centure. Who's smart, now, huh?
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
Back in the day, the ancient Greeks felt that music was closely aligned with astronomy and nature. In fact, Plato envisioned something called the "music of the spheres", which was made up of the natural harmonic tones supposedly produced by the movement of the stars and planets. Bizarre.
Hmm, after years of watching sci-fi films and hearing space fights, I thought it was just an oversight. Somehow we bould all our future weapons to make explosion noises that can be picked up by these radios. Explains the odd weapon sounds in Star Wars Episode II...
I found out about the concert this weekend checking out Terry Riley's web site. I'm not a huge fan, but was just surfing through.
Apparently he is going to be interpreting some of this stuff and performing at the concert. Just a heads up for any Terry Riley fans.
Since I live in Iowa City, I might have to drag myself down there.
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
The sounds on the tape were actually first heard as "sounds", when the Allied Air Forces were monitoring the airwaves for German radio signals. Turns out what they were hearing were 'whistler' waves being generated from lighting strikes in the Southern Hemisphere.
The point that Dr. Gurnett has made with transcribing the sounds is to explain that space is not nearly as "empty" as we all think, but is a very dynamic (and noisy) environment.
This is becoming even more important as we become a satellite-dependent society; the interactions of earth's magnetic field and the space plasma environment create these sounds, the northern lights, and have been known to interrupt satellite signals.
How these discoveries were made is also a fascinating subject: the first scientific discovery in outer space was the discovery of a large plasma 'belt' surrounding the earth, which was made by Dr. Gurnett's teacher and mentor at the U. of Iowa; Dr. James Van Allen.
- A former physics student at the U. of Iowa.
From the above, here's Tom's Music from Some Guys in Space intro, in MP3 format.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
thank you! i've been looking all over for that!
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.