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The Hundred Million Mile Pipe Organ

Posted by kdawson on from the louder-than-yours dept.

jd writes "Scientists have announced that the gigantic coils of plasma in the solar atmosphere, known as coronal loops, actually carry sound waves much like a pipe organ. Micro-flares on the surface of the sun create powerful blasts of charged particles, which are then guided through the coronal loops, creating the standing waves. Sheffield University is hosting movies and audio recordings of the sun's performance."

11 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. I translated the song and it says... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..."La la la, I'm going to heat up and cook that little blue planet, just for the hell of it, la la la...."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  2. Re:Mummy by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    What does it sound like when God farts?

    A perfect being would not fart, it seems to me. Farting is allegedly part of humanity's punishment for eating an apple without underwear on and talking dirty to a snake (er....something like that).

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Now you have really done it. by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's hope that the RIAA does not hear about this or they will require the sun to be DRM'ed by Sony's fantastic systems.

    1. Re:Now you have really done it. by Hotawa+Hawk-eye · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, tell the RIAA. They'll send their technicians to the sun to install DRM, and when their technicians come back radiation-blasted to report that they failed, they'll send in the lawyers. Two for one deal!

    2. Re:Now you have really done it. by Dolphinzilla · · Score: 4, Funny

      it will be OK - they said they are going to go there at night...

  4. I'm sorry. by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not clicking on something called wang_mov.avi

    --
    God spoke to me.
    1. Re:I'm sorry. by smoker2 · · Score: 4, Funny
      I'm not clicking on something called wang_mov.avi again !

      There, fixed that for ya ;)

  5. University of Sheffield by sdaug · · Score: 3, Informative

    The correct name is The University of Sheffield, not Sheffield University.

  6. Other sounds of the universe by RichPowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here are some sounds of Jovian "radio storms":

    http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/radiojove_ sbursts.htm
    http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/radiojove_ lbursts.htm

    And my favorite: a University of Washington professor used temperature variations in the cosmic background radiation to create the "sound of the Big Bang." This allows us to hear the first 760 thousand years of the universe. Of course the frequencies are boosted because the actual Big Bang frequencies are far too low to be heard by humans. Amazing stuff.

    http://faculty.washington.edu/jcramer/BBSound.html

  7. I think it's Tito Puente or the ID4 aliens... by trimbo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It sounds like a drumroll Tito Puente might have done. It's about the right pitch for one of his timbales.

    Although, it also kind of sounds like the signal being sent around on satellites in ID4.

    So basically it's either a message from one of the greatest Latin drummers or aliens hell bent on destroying the earth. Have a nice weekend everyone!

  8. space sound recordings by jovius · · Score: 4, Informative

    There exists a wonderful collection of elecromagnetic waves made audible called "NASA space probe recordings" and "Symphonies of the Planets". The latter has five volumes total. They raised the frequencies of the voyager space craft recordings of the interplanetary magnetic and electric fields to audible range and released the resulting darkish ambient soundscapes.